theglaze wrote on Jan 6, 2022, 13:09:
This video goes into detail https://youtu.be/2MKtgP7cHEk

Here's my quick breakdown...

• Senior BF devs starting leaving the team after BF4. Some claiming they knew what fans wanted because they were fans of the franchise, but management was calling the shots and controlling creative direction. The youtuber suggests corporate was focused on chasing the success of competitors, rather than building it's own unique content from within
• Design was focused on free battle royal because EA decided it NEEDED to compete in this space. It didn't know if Apex Legends could pull it off, and decided the BF name recognition was needed to attract fans to its F2P BR model.
• It took 3 times longer than anticipated to get BF on an upgraded Frostbite engine, so it started behind schedule
• More senior staff left BEFORE post-production started of BF2042, suggesting they knew it was going to be a steaming pile. Most people on the team have 7 years of experience or less, some new to Frostbite, new to BF, or new to both
• The switch from battle royale to full price 'traditional' BF experience happened a month or two before post-production.
• The UI team was so gutted by staff departures, it was almost entirely outsourced just a few months before the game was released.
• Covid protocols meant that workers were no longer going into the office as the team transitioned to remote working. Many devs didn't have the hardware at home (consoles or PC) to test their code and changes, because EA provided that gear in the office. Remote workers had to download a new build every day on home networks (100 times slower) and ask fellow coworkers to test their bug fixes on their personal PS5 or XB or PC
• Management hesitated to push out the launch, settled for a few weeks when everyone involved in development was asking for months

Thanks for the summary. Sounds painful. Hopefully they do some serious post mortem on this one, rebuild the team properly, and focus on the things that made BF great: working together as a squad, having epic battles with large team sizes, interesting and properly sized maps, vehicles that enhance the game instead of ruin it, a variety of fun game modes, satisfying progression that isn't too grindy, the right balance between casual and hardcore, and maybe even some destructible environments. Yeah it's a lot to ask for but they did it before. BC2 was probably the peak IMO.