Battlefield 6: Thoughts on the Launch
When Battlefield 2042 launched on 19th November 2021, it was a complete dog’s dinner. There were technical issues, including widespread bugs, poor performance and inconsistent hit registration. The launch was also criticized for the removal of core gameplay features like the class system, a scoreboard, and a server browser, which led to the game being considered unfinished and incomplete at release. Although developers, Battlefield Studios, worked hard to address many of the issues arising from the launch, the net result was that the franchise’s reputation was harmed. However, the beta testing of Battlefield 6 throughout August this year, has done much to restore the franchise’s good standing with a game that has clearly returned to a formula that works.
Hence, yesterday’s launch of Battlefield 6 was of particular significance. Players would finally be able to experience the entirety of the new game and determine if Battlefield really was “back”. It was also a chance for developer’s, Battlefield Studios, to restore the franchise’s reputation. Fortunately, the launch went relatively well, with record player counts being set (740,000 concurrent players on Steam) as soon as the game went live at 16:00 GMT. However, there were some problems such as the game not working at all via the EA app, thus inconveniencing a sizable group of players. There were also some general errors such as “DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED”, which PC players encountered across multiple platforms. And being a game launch, there were server queues, which at one point were over a quarter of a million.
Thankfully, within 24 hours the majority of these issues were resolved. During this period I had to use EA support and I was impressed how quick and efficient the live chat option was. The communication was clear and the troubleshooting comprehensive. I was finally able to launch and play Battlefield 6 at about 13:00 PM today. The game is extremely well optimised and immediately configured the graphics to a level my PC could handle, without any need for me to do any fine tuning. Despite there still being an extremely large number of concurrent players, finding a multiplayer game does not take long and the server performance is robust. All of which is a step up from Call of Duty: Warzone where finding and connecting to a game can sometimes take 3 or 4 minutes. It will be interesting to see what happens when Battlefield 6 releases its Battle Royale game and starts directly competing with Warzone.
It is worth noting that EA were acutely aware that there were problems with the launch of Battlefield 6 yesterday. They were not as bad as those that blighted its predecessor but a lot of people were inconvenienced. While writing this post I received an email from EA addressing the failure of the EA app and apologising for the problem. As compensation they have offered the following. “Anyone on the EA app who was impacted will receive 12 Hardware and 12 Career 60-Minute Boosters, which should be arriving in impacted players’ in-game inbox this weekend. In addition, we will also be granting impacted players full access to a seasonal Battle Pass. Phantom Edition owners will get Season 2’s full Battle Pass”. As someone who uses the EA app and who purchased the Phantom Edition of the game, I appreciated the gesture. I shall share my thoughts on live gameplay in my next post.
Roger Edwards