Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment and head of the Battlefield franchise, has spoken out about the latest installment in the series, Battlefield 2042, suggesting that it’s strayed too far from its roots. Upon release last year, Battlefield 2042 was not only plagued by technical issues – its controversial design choices also quickly garnered overwhelmingly negative reviews from players on Steam.
Developer Dice has continued to improve and expand on Battlefield 2042’s shaky foundation since then, but it often felt like too little and too late. Publisher EA admitted that the game’s sales “didn’t meet expectations,” stating, “Some of the design choices we made didn’t resonate with everyone in our community.”
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Series boss opens up about Battlefield 2042’s problems
Now the boss of the franchise, Vince Zampella, has commented on the reasons for the difficulties of Battlefield 2042. He told financial magazine Barrons, “I think they’ve strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is about.” Referring to Battlefield 2042’s defunct 128-player Breakthrough mode, Zampella added, “They tried to do a few things that might have been ambitious: increase player count, etc. I don’t think they had enough time spent trying to figure out what’s fun about it.”
“It’s not inherently a bad idea,” Zampella continued. “The way they were set up and the way they executed it just didn’t allow them to find the best possible.” Following Battlefield 2042’s commercial and critical failure, EA announced it was rethinking the series’ development process “from the ground up,” recently stating that it is “coordinating multiple studios to build a cohesive Battlefield universe.”
