DICE Apology Rings Hollow after Self-Inflicted Battlefield V Disaster
The poorly-developed Battlefield V has derailed the Battlefield series after the roaring success of its predecessor, Battlefield 1. | Source: EA/Dice
By CCN.com: Developer DICE’s year-long denial of Battlefield V’s failure has finally ended as VP and general manager, Oskar Gabrielson, took to Twitter to issue an apology to the community for falling short of expectations.
Despite recognizing that Battlefield V failed to embody an experience matching that promised by EA’s suffocating pre-release hype cycle, Gabrielson’s promise of redressing Battlefield V’s from the brink of disaster rings hollow.
DICE Promises To Fix Battlefield V
Much of the apology centers on the frustration caused by Battlefield V’s latest content drop, Chapter 4: Defying the Odds. Despite promising a slew of new maps and content that never materialized, Chapter 4 introduced performance issues that detracted significantly from the overall quality of the game, including glaring graphical bugs and desyncs. These alongside the PR fiascos, countless delays, and overbearing monetization that have plagued the shooter’s troubled history.
In what has been a long-running theme with Battlefield V, DICE appeared all too eager to introduce new features rather than fix lingering bugs and the game’s notoriously sketchy stability. These features, however, fail to even find there way into the game.
Gabrielson says the development team will refocus efforts on improving the core experience and is sidelining the long-promised 5v5 mode alongside doubling down on fixes to iron out issues and provide promised content.
However, in a post by senior producer, Ryan McArthur, on the Battlefield V website, DICE seems as intent as ever to pump out new content, promising two Pacific-based maps, two infantry-only maps, new weapons, and vehicles before the end of the year.
These seemingly conflicting takes on DICE’s plans going forward appear as a contradiction and further entrench the perception that the developer hopes to blinker an awful player experience with a steady stream of mediocre content that it systematically fails to deliver on time.
Battlefront II As A Benchmark
Gabrielson also used the recent update for Battlefront II, another DICE title that fell to the wayside shortly after launch, as proof that the developer is serious about fixing Battlefield V. Referencing a game that took two years to even flirt with its full potential and was at the center of a well-publicized loot box fiasco doesn’t exactly instill much confidence.
Although DICE’s desperate attempts to fix the game are commendable in some respects, it’s all too little, too late – the Battlefield V disaster is firmly etched into the annals of video game history.
