EA has confirmed there’s a new Battlefield game in development, but it seems like there’s a subset of Battlefield “fans” that aren’t too happy about it. They’ve taken to harassing DICE over the announcement, which has led the Battlefield developer to issue a statement asking them to stop.
“Recently we have witnessed increased harassment towards members of our development team. Across all of our Battlefield Studios, we are open to constructive feedback and criticism about our games,” EA wrote on Twitter. “But to maintain a healthy and open dialogue with our community, we will protect our teams and people from toxicity and harassment. We believe this has no place inside our game or within the Battlefield community.”
The Battlefield publisher reminded everyone that harassment of any kind is against the EA User Agreement and Battlefield Community Guidelines, and anyone caught could face a permanent account ban.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently spoke of Battlefield’s future (via GamesRadar) after Battlefield 2042’s disastrous launch and ongoing struggles with player retention. Wilson said that he’d take “ownership” of Battlefield’s failures, but would continue to “build” the franchise “for the future.”
Wilson confirmed that a new Battlefield game is in development, but stopped short of providing any additional details. He did say that Battlefield will be “Back in an entirely new way,” and that he has “extraordinary confidence in [DICE] and extraordinary confidence in the progress they’re making against the future of that franchise.”
He added, “Building games and experiences that attract and entertain massive online communities across platforms, across business models, across geographies. And we think that Battlefield is going to be a meaningful part of our future. We’ll share more as time progresses.”
However, it seems the news wasn’t well-received by many in the Battlefield community. The influx of angry DMs and other hateful messages led EA to post a warning to Battlefield fans over the weekend, which in turn received angry and hateful replies.
One toxic response suggested EA “cut ties” with DICE or send them to “re-education courses in game design.” Another accused EA of being a “snowflake,” and another said it deserved “every single negative comment.” This toxic behavior continued to Reddit where another post agreed that EA and DICE received harassment for “good reason.”
Not all replies to EA were quite as gross. Many were supportive of the developers and more than one suggested that the simplest way to tell EA that they were dissatisfied would be to just stop playing. Judging by Steamcharts’ account of Battlefield 2042’s players, plenty of fans have chosen that option already.
That said, Battlefield 2042 has been making steady improvements since its bungled 2021 launch. Most recently, 2042 has returned from its entirely character-based gameplay to a more traditional class-based approach. This seems to have encouraged some Battlefield fans to return to the franchise.
