"I think they just strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is."

By Eddie Makuch on September 16, 2022 at 9:35AM PDT

Vince Zampella, who is now the overall boss of Battlefield at EA, has shared his thoughts on what went wrong with DICE's Battlefield 2042. Speaking to Barron's, Zampella said Battlefield 2042 didn't resonate with fans in part because some of the game's ideas were too ambitious, like its 128-player matches.

"I think they just strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is. They tried to do a couple things that were maybe ambitious: grow the player count etc. I don't think they spent enough time iterating on what makes that fun," Zampella said. "It's not inherently a bad idea. The way they were set up and the way they executed just didn't allow them to find the best thing possible."

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In May, DICE removed some 128-player playlists from Battlefield 2042, dropping them to 64 players to help with match pacing and other factors.

In regards to Zampella's comment about how DICE was "set up," the team did a lot of work from home during the pandemic. DICE's new GM, Rebecka Coutaz, said the work-from-home setup was challenging.

"It is different to work from home, even though that is the way we're working now, it took time to adapt," Coutaz said. "And it took time to know how to work well together. Everybody was disappointed--our community, our players, and our team as well. It's a team that has invested years of their lives into this game. And for that game not to live up to any expectations from the team or from the players, that was tough. We are moving forward and we've done a lot of things since then."

Zampella was elevated to the overall boss of Battlefield after Battlefield 2042's launch. He told Barron's that under his watch, the Battlefield series is being developed under a "whole new structure."

"We're putting multiple studios together. We're bringing the best talent together and giving them the time to do something amazing," Zampella said.

Though Battlefield 2042 might not have landed with everyone, the game finished 2021 as the fifth-best-selling game of the year in the US. DICE plans to continue to grow, evolve, and support the game for some time to come. The latest big patch, Season 2: Master of Arms, released at the end of August, adding a new map and Operator, along with additional content.

Looking ahead, there are multiple new Battlefield experiences in the works, including a narrative project at Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto's new Ridgeline studio and another project at Battlefield Portal developer Ripple Effect. DICE, meanwhile, is working on Battlefield's multiplayer going forward.

In addition to Zampella getting promoted to Battlefield's top boss, a management shakeup saw DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson leave the company, with Coutaz stepping in as his replacement. Additionally, one of DICE's longest-serving developers, Lars Gustavsson AKA Mr. Battlefield, has left the company.

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