Battlefield 2042's Poor Reception Is Partly Due To Halo Infinite, Claims EA

Update: EA has responded to the claim that it partly blamed Halo Infinite for Battlefield 2042's poor reception, stating that the discussion "was about key learnings and actions we are taking, not blaming external factors."

Here's what EA communications VP John Reseburg had to say about it in a statement to PC Gamer:

"These stories are not accurately capturing the discussion and the context, which was an in-depth and very humble internal conversation about the recent Battlefield launch. It was about key learnings and actions we are taking, not blaming external factors."


Original story: A new report has been published by journalist Tom Henderson over at XFire revealing details from a recent internal EA meeting call, including a suggestion that Halo Infinite was partly to blame for Battlefield 2042's poor launch.

EA's Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele reportedly told staff that there were multiple reasons why Battlefield 2042 suffered a bad start, including the large scale of its ambition, work-from-home development and the sheer number of bugs at launch, but "the early critical reception was good", and Halo Infinite was a reason why things began to change:

Here's what Henderson had to say about it in his report:

"Following the game's launch, DICE rolled out its Day 1 and Day 0 patches to get the bug count down further. On this, Miele continued and said that Battlefield 2042's launch and patches meant "the game was stable" and "the early critical reception was good". However, according to EA, things took a turn, and that turn was *clears throat*,​ the surprise release of Halo Infinite multiplayer (I wish I was joking)."

"According to Miele, the comparison between both games was not favourable because Halo Infinite was a very polished title whereas Battlefield 2042 contained bugs and wasn't as polished."

As you may remember, Halo Infinite's multiplayer was originally scheduled to launch on December 8th with the rest of the game, but ended up releasing early on November 15th — just four days before the launch of Battlefield 2042 on November 19th.

EA has already publicly admitted that Battlefield 2042 didn't live up to expectations at launch, with boss Andrew Wilson stating recently that the game "[had] unanticipated performance issues" and "some of the design choices we made did not resonate". However, the company says it's "fully committed to realising the full potential of this game".

Do you agree with EA on this one, or was Battlefield 2042 doomed no matter what? Tell us down below.

[source pcgamer.com]