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Majority of talent that built previous Battlefield games have left EA. Next BF game, coming this year, built by four studios following CoD philosophy

Read through the Bluesky thread. This part made me chuckle:

The business people at EA have always looked longingly at Call of Duty and the gazillions of dollars it makes annually. Then they look at Battlefield and ask, "Why can't you be more like that???"

They really don't get it. The leadership over at EA SF is practically anti-creative (not to say the people over at Activision's top aren't either). They only care about brands and money. No wonder they are only good at making Soccer gacha games these days. That's the only thing they excel at. Maybe they should just cease any collaborations and lines with independent studios and save those studios the headache.

Also, that rough 98 percentage of former developers not being there any longer is not the least surprising.
 
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Hudo

Gold Member
EA is quite interesting as a company. They are one of the big game publishers, yet their output is really miserable. And on the rare occasion where they do finally release a big project, it's usually mediocre. All the while sitting on a treasure trove of IPs, with which they do nothing.

If it weren't for EA Sports and their whale hunting, the company would've folded decades ago. I dunno how any investor can be happy about this company's situation. Andrew Wilson is doing a really shitty job, imho.
 
Really looking forward to this one. Been playing quite a bit of the portal modes in 2042. Afghanistan War Sim, BF1942 and BF3 playlists remind me why Battlefield is so good.

They really need to go back to BF3 and follow that kind of philosophy.
 

bighugeguns

Member
Wish they'd instead invest in the philosophy of giving me my fucking money back for 2042. DICE today is an abomination of creative cowards and liars they will be unable to produce anything meaningful.
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
I got so sick of MW2 that I traded it in and bought Bad Company 2 after the beta. It was an incredible game that offered so much more than CoD. I adored that game. I wanted BC3.

The execs that only see CoD's dollar signs seemingly have no clue what does or doesn't make a good game or why one succeeds, and incredible unique games are sacrificed in favour of shallow mimicry. Why innovate and stand out when you can be an imitation with less going for it than what you're copying?
 

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
My body is ready to be disappointed ruthlessly.

Ou3gJ0D.jpeg
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
The headline is lacking some context to be fair. It's referring to multi-studio development when it talks about adopting "COD philosophy".

I don't really have a problem with that approach. I just want something that is more BF3 than 2042.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
These hyperbolic takes rarely provide any evidence or proof to any of theses claims.

We are talking about a studio with over 800 plus employees, that we are now pretending just up and vanished and half went to Embark.

Well...that math isn't fucking pathing as clearly that studio doesn't even have enough staff for that lie to make any sense

but we've heard this same shit before as its a old tired ass trope. "DERRRRR MORE THEN HALF of CDPR is GONE, they are now working at-" (provides zero evidence that a whole ass team magically left)


Keep in mind, when you actually fucking look up the studio, some came from Ubisoft, Sony, MS, Capcom, Fatshark AB, After Impact, Mojang, Id Software, Game Kitchen etc So a lot that worked on the Finals, didn't even work on the past BF title to make any of those claims make as much as sense as some might want.

To my understanding, that team was formed by former DICE employees, but with a team like DICE at close to 800 plus, lots of studios are made from former DICE employees, that doesn't mean half of DICE left to make this or that as I don't see much actual evidence to support some of those claims

On linkedin, we can see at the studio (embark) has at last 340 employees. If the vast majority of these are from EA, yeah, that's pretty significant and isn't hyperbolic at all.

TTK has 57 employees on LinkedIn. That's 397 employees between the two of them. That's a massive amount if these were senior talent too.

Of course as you said, not all of these came from EA/DICE but it does look like a large percentage did.
 

Tams

Member
I quit playing BF. WAs my go to for a long long time.

I never bought the last one. I actually liked the big maps of 2042, but was completely unfinished and buggy as usual and they didn't seem to know what made the original games great.

Bfv made everyone sit in the weeds. AT least that's what it forced me to do.

BF1 was pretty good in many respects, but everyone would just rotate flags constantly. And the game let matches continue on long after they were over. And sometimes they were over in 3-4 minutes but went on and on. Also not good for the experience of the many when they let people quit constantly when their team isn't dominating. Another annoyance was how players were too focused on doing their BF homework instead of playing as an army and a team. If xyz weapon assignment was out then everyone would be doing that. Felt stupid. And if the assignment was sit in a flag zone prone with a pistol and a med kit that's what you'd see everywhere. Also missing from BF1 was the nice big maps and vehicles mostly in the DLC. The DLC only had 3 maps with tanks and planes. The map vote system was tyranny of the majority which meant the same 5 maps got vast majority of play time. Should have been like Mario Kart where votes are names in the hat. And the map is drawn out of the hat.

BF4... was rescued by Obliteration mode. Which they gave up on too quick. But the beauty of that mode was the need for teamwork to get objectives and how you had to pay attention to objectives or you would lose the game. Killing people was in a way secondary. IF you were just going to sit back and peg people off...then you're likely to lose because you're eventually you'll die and get overun by the people playing the objective. Made really good use out of giving each other rides in vehicles. And another beauty was the game was over quick if the teams were lopsided. You could knock out the enemy sort to speak. Instead of the game dragging on lopsided for another 10-15 minutes.




Another problem with the franchise. It would send the side modes out to die. The ones they did support say in 2024 and BFV were really just the same modes. REduced to a choice between do you want big battles all the time or a combination of big battles and small battles.

The first games were best. Once the franchise got mainstream... the gameplay got watered down. And seems people care too much about stats and how many versions of an assault rifle the game had.

Oh another big knock is balancing out matches with roughly equal skill levels. Obviously not possible to be perfect. But too often in too matches one side is loaded and ...that's a big reason people quit. To various degrees they allowed team switching which almost always was people switching to the dominating side. They never seemed to address this. LEt me people do however they want to the detriment of the overall experience.

Another example of their horrible management of the experience is starting rounds with lopsided teams. I played the small conquest like mode in BFV a few times and every session there would be too many rounds that started with 1v6 or 2v7... Super lazy on their part. This was present in other BF games as well.

...an example of a well managed online shooter is Splatoon from Nintendo. They actually gave a lot of thought to the mp experience in terms of varying and showcasing maps & modes, penalizing quitters and not letting people pub stomp with friends in casual modes among other things.

Yeah, I still go back to Splatoon and Mario Kart because it at least feels fair most of the time.

I haven't touched Battlefield in years.
 

Warspite

Member
2042 was terrible at release, game play and maps were some of the worst in BF history.

Since release someone has polish that turd as much as can be done to the point where it is now ok, a lot of the initial release bit still holds it back (original maps for example). Now does that mean someone at Dice knows what they are doing and will EA let them make a good battlefield game only time will tell.

I am not getting my hopes up.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
EA is quite interesting as a company. They are one of the big game publishers, yet their output is really miserable. And on the rare occasion where they do finally release a big project, it's usually mediocre. All the while sitting on a treasure trove of IPs, with which they do nothing.

If it weren't for EA Sports and their whale hunting, the company would've folded decades ago. I dunno how any investor can be happy about this company's situation. Andrew Wilson is doing a really shitty job, imho.

Exclusive deals with the NFL and others have kept EA relevant but also destroyed football games.

I can't wait until someone makes a competitor to EA FC using the FIFA license (assuming they can get club licenses too and that those aren't exclusively negotiated).
 

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
Wish we get a bf like V again. Yes it had many issues at launch like all BF titles, but after the pacific update it was fucking great. It will be remembered as the last good BF game even tho some people still like to hate on it.
I've only played BF4, BF1 and BF5. All great games with many hours of multiplayer madness. I don't hold much hope for whatever comes out next though.☹️
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Just make Bad Company 3? A nice campaign, cool physics for destroying shit and some multiplayer modes. It's not rocket science, really, it seems like some companies have just forgotten how to make videogames.
 

manfestival

Member
Just a few thoughts.
BF2042 was a HUGE letdown. The hype was there and they were primed to actually overtake COD that year with lots of people feeling really burned out by the games. They clawed back at some of their redemption once Vince got back on board. However, case of too little too late basically. They managed to save the game but it never met the potential. Also screw DICE for removing 128 man Breakthrough. That was the craziest and most fun I had in a shooter despite the sheer chaos of it. The storytelling attempt through the game was pretty cringe too.

Embark is an awesome studio that is doing so much right. While Finals seems to be doing well. The game deserves more. I guess they just found the right talent from DICE and brought them aboard. Plus the destruction is everything we have wanted in a battlefield game since BC2.

Fool me thrice I am the fool? Well, its weird looking at Battlefield 6 and being optimistic about it. Especially when so many are pessimistic or downright over the games. Been a long time fan of Vince and his philosophy of "get to the fun as fast as possible." Plus the man has worked with so many teams on so many games, yet they are all solid titles is just something only some can say but not most. Cautiously optimistic especially knowing that most of the knuckleheads dipped with BF5 and BF2042 fiascos ended.
 

bighugeguns

Member
???

Its been known for years that its coming this year. Its been 4 years since the last BF, this will be the biggest gap between BF releases
Tone deaf live service shit headed by some COD corpo douche is not Battlefield, I don't care how much EA marketing would want it to be true. That publisher would have been closed down years ago if it wasn't for their sports casinos aimed at kids, they are assholes.

I'm sorry, I can't think of Battlefield without getting mad. I'm preemptively getting angry because I know everything will be completely wrong.
 
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EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.1
2042 was terrible at release, game play and maps were some of the worst in BF history.

Since release someone has polish that turd as much as can be done to the point where it is now ok, a lot of the initial release bit still holds it back (original maps for example). Now does that mean someone at Dice knows what they are doing and will EA let them make a good battlefield game only time will tell.

I am not getting my hopes up.
I spent the morning after releasing digging myself out of that hate bubble you people created, you still have fighting inside, outside, on top of buildings, game modes that accomplish teamwork, weather effects that tamper your visibility and gunning for objects and the maps aren’t the worse things in the world.
 
Every few years there's a new generation of 13 year olds that are going to get tricked by Battlefield trailers. I got got by BF3 and that middle-east campaign mission video.
Where is this revisionist history coming from? I cant let you sit up here and talk out of your ass, lol. COD is the franchise that appealed to little kids with its "kill streak" perk system that gave them a dophamine effect to chase, while BF required team work and comminication with its class system. What exactly do you mean " got got"? Explain how that middle east mission "got" you. BF3 and BF4 were the peak of the Battlefield franchise. Even when BF4 had issues at launch was still fun as hell to play. Both games made COD look like shit and a generation behind. It wasnt until the recent COD MF released where they actually managed to match some of BF mechanics, and they they're still behind.

It seems as though after the stumble of BF2042, people are using the opportunity to shit on BF like its a bad franchise or something. Must be COD lovers, because anyone whos play BF knows COD is not on its level, it was just more popular among kids who like to use racial slurs and expletives on Xbox 360 party chat. Dont let the sales of COD fool you. Just because McDonald's sells a lot of burgers, does not mean it equals quality. This video is a perfect example of why people love BF and why the fans are so passionate about it. Even their old games still do things that new COD games dont.

 
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YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
Sadly, I doubt the Battlefield franchise will ever again hit the highs of BC2, BF3 and BF4. At this point, they would be much better off simply remaking these older entries. A full remake of Bad Company 2 and its Vietnam expansion or BF3 may help restore the franchise.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Wait Battlefront II is one of the games they are using as an example of EA bombing?
Battlefront II sold loads and load and retained players for way longer than people seem to remember.



As long as they learned their lesson from BF2042 im all in for the next Battlefield.
Bring back BF3Alpha destruction
 
Just don't like any of the changes they end up brining to these games. Why the hell did they bring bots into this game? I have no idea what Respawns obsession is with bots in multiplayer.
 

KillaJamm

Member
BF 2 was the best one, it was meh after that.
BF1 was where it peaked for me, then they got progressively worse in the next 2 interactions. I said after 2042 I'm never pre ordering a battlefield game again and I'll stick by that, hopefully they prove me wrong and it's back to what made battlefield great in the first place.
 

salva

Member
All you have to do is make a new battlefield using Battlefield 2 mechanics (squads, commander, VoIP, classes) with Battlefield 3s gunplay.

Instead you'll create a loot fest COD clone.

I've been burned by the last few BF releases to give 0 fucks about the franchises future
 
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Source: https://bsky.app/profile/rizible.bsky.social/post/3lfysl6rcfs2g

Summary:
  • EA had major leadership changes after a series of flops (Battlefront II, Mass Effect Andromeda, Battlefield V, Anthem, Need For Speed, Battlefield 2042)
  • Old DICE leadership left, made Embark studios and poached half of the studio's talent
  • Remaining talent formed TTK games
  • EA hired Call of Duty's GM to rebuild the Battlefield brand
  • Next BF will launch in Oct 2025, made by four studios following CoD's multi-studio dev model
  • According to OP, 98% of the people making this BF did not work on previous BF games
Bring back Bad Company!!! BC2 is the most fun I've had in a BF game online, the player caused destruction was so much better than scripted set piece moments.
 
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