Coutaz noted that even DICE itself was quite disappointed with the release of Battlefield 2042, going on to say that the studio wanted to ensure that it doesn’t launch another game in a similar state in the future. “They were disappointed on Battlefield 2042, too,” said Coutaz. “And, across all the studios, they did not want to allow this to happen again.”

She also spoke about how there were differences in expectations when it came to DICE and the community surrounding Battlefield. This led to DICE continuing to work on Battlefield 2042 to ultimately turn the title’s fortunes around to some degree. Coutaz points out that the shooter in its current state is a vastly different game than what it was at launch.

“We had a lot of expectations from the community,” she said, “and the players who have been with us for decades. So we owed some things to them – and, of course, to our teams as well.” At this point, after four years of continuous development and iteration, Coutaz notes that “the game is in a completely different state than when we released it,” and that “we still have a lot of players playing.”

Currently, EA and DICE are celebrating the upcoming release of Battlefield 6 with a series of planned content updates for Battlefield 2042. The plans for these updates – dubbed the Road to Battlefield 6 – were announced last month, and started with a surprise update that brought in a fan-favourite map to the title – Iwo Jima. The map originally made its debut with the first ever Battlefield game – Battlefield 1942. Since then, it has shown up in the series here and there, with the most recent one being from Battlefield 5.

The map has seen some upgrades in its Battlefield 2042 iteration, with the addition of an active volcano that serves as its main spectacle. The map also brings back some of the classic Battlefield feeling, like allowing players to make use of boat landings, bunkers, and trenches along the map. Alongside Iwo Jima, Battlefield 2042 also got some new weapons – the KFS2000 assault rifle and the Lynx sniper rifle. On the vehicle side of things, the game got the A10 Warthog and the SU-25TM Frogfoot.

Further celebrating the October 10 release of Battlefield 6 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, DICE also released a new battle pass in Battlefield 2042 that allows players to earn rewards that have been inspired from the entire franchise, ranging from Bad Company 2 all the way to the beloved Battlefield 1, and even Battlefield 3, 4 and 5. Portal is also seeing some celebration for the month of September, with rotating new game modes and experiences being featured every 48 hours.

The map in question is Iwo Jima, which first made its debut with the first ever Battlefield game – Battlefield 1942. The map has since shown up quite a few times in games like Battlefield 1943, and most recently before this update, Battlefield 5. The version of the map featured in Battlefield 2042 will include an active volcano as its big spectacle, while also giving players the option to make use of boat landings, bunkers, and trenches along the reimagined map.

The update also brings in two new weapons and vault vehicles for players. The new weapons are the KFS2000 assault rifle and the Lynx sniper rifle. As for the vehicles, players can now make use of the A10 Warthog and the SU-25TM Frogfoot in their matches. The two new attack jets will be available for use in the game’s All Out Warfare playlist, and both of them focus on taking out opposing vehicles thanks to their loadouts.

The update has been described by DICE as the start of the Road to Battlefield 6, and also brings with it a brand new free Battlepass that players can complete to unlock new rewards. The update is also bringing with it challenges that players can complete to unlock rewards for Battlefield 6. The new battlepass features 60 tiers worth of rewards, all of them being cosmetics. Of these, more than 50 are described as being inspired by Battlefield 1, Battlefield 5, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 4.

Along with this, DICE has also announced a new themed event, dubbed the Best of Portal, which will kick off on September 2. Going on until September 30, players will be able to earn new rewards throughout the event, which will feature rotating new game mode experiences every 48 hours.

More content has been teased for yet another update down the line, with a quote at the end of the patch notes saying that “The time has come to end this once and for all. Your mission gear is being prepared. Open your eyes, sharpen your ears, and do your research.”

Battlefield 2042 Update 9.2 Patch Notes:

Weapons

• Fixed an issue for various weapons where the Underloaded Magazine didn’t show the correct mesh when equipped.
• Vault Weapon LMGs and DFR Strife

Dev comment: Updated UI stats on extended ammo attachments to better reflect how they behave. Most of them were missing “Reload speed” as a negative trait and slightly lower handling. Note that this is purely an UI change and that the weapons themselves already had this active.

• Laser and flashlight underbarrels should now show correctly the on/off state in the inventory UI.
• Fixed an issue where underbarrel grenade launchers would sometimes be more accurate while moving, they should now always be less accurate when moving.

Dev comment: This fix comes with a small tuning pass on accuracy to make it more consistent with hip fire and aim down sights.

• Added texture variations to all underloaded mag attachments and fixed an issue where AEK-971 extended mag would not show a visual variation in most cases.
• Text description for different magazine attachments updated to be more reflective and accurate.
• NTW-50:

Slightly increased Anti-Material High-Power damage versus light vehicles, civilian vehicles and deployed gadgets.

Dev comment: The intention is to lean in a bit to the anti-materiel identity for this weapon when the soldier chooses to go for extra armor penetration.

• AN-94:

Fixed an issue where the Ghost Hybrid scope did not show a hint for switching between magnification modes.

• GOL Magnum:

Fixed an issue where high power ammo had a slightly higher fire rate than standard issue ammo. It should now have a slightly lower fire rate than standard issue.

• AK5C:

Fixed an issue where the AK5C extended mag gave unintended bonuses to horizontal and vertical recoil. The extended mag is now not granting said bonuses, making it the same as other standard issue extended magazines.

• Fixed an issue with Masterkey and Underbarrel Grenade Launcher reducing the ammo a player spawns with for the Masterkey on LCMG and SWS.
• Fixed a bug with the Arcom Tactical Muzzle Attachment obstructing the player’s view.

Dev comment: With fixing this bug we’re also re-enabling the attachment in-game!

• Fixed a bug where the red laser attachment on the PP-2000 appeared green.
• Fixed LS-1 laser icon layer in the collection screen for MP443.

Modes

• Outbreak:

Once the round has started it is no longer possible to change characters.

• Fixed a bug where the wrong icons were shown on the Frontlines scoreboard.

Gameplay Flow & Social

• Improved visibility of controller input prompts in the inventory HUD against light backgrounds.
• Updated the game credits list with the final list of all the passionate developers who have poured their hearts and souls into this game. Please check it out, and thanks for playing and sticking with us! <3

Vehicles

• Removed plow collision from the CAV-Brawler skin “Crossroads”, to keep it from getting stuck on terrain and buildings.
• Added new hints for the pilot of the attack jets including free look.
• Bomb hatches of the XFAD-4 Draugr now correctly open and close.
• A10 Warthog and Frogfoot no longer take damage when upside down midair on low velocity.
• Updated the eject impulse on the A10 Warthog and Frogfoot to be consistent with other vehicles
• Added intro sequence for A10 and Frogfoot attack jets.
• Frogfoot and A10 require more contact with water to automatically eject players now
• Improved instances of roadkills not being rewarded when performed by frogfoot
• Free look in 1p in A10 and Frogfoot no longer steers the vehicle
• Zoom hold/toggle player option is now correctly taken into account by the SU-25TM Frogfoot
• Fixed a bug where the “Normandy” XFAD-4 Draugr skin would make the vehicle take more damage.
• Increased the damage RPG and recoilless deals to EBLC-Ram.
• Blast radius of EBLC -Ram driver missiles decreased from 3 to 1.5″
• Fixed an issue with attack jets slightly floating on the menus.
• Improved camera positions during customization of the attack jets to have a better visibility of what is being customized.
• Fixed inconsistent FoV on the attack jets.
• Updated the attack jet to use a similar bullet transform to 2042 jets.
• All locking weapons now should correctly lock onto empty vehicles if the vehicle is designated.
• Littlebird will no longer fly backwards at very high speed when hacked.
• Lowered G force effects on the attack jets to reduce blackout early during turns.

Developer comment:

With the addition of the two new Attack Jets, we are reducing the role of Fighter Jets in ground combat.

F35/SU57

• Regular rocketpods ammo reduced from 16 to 14
• Regular rocketpods blast damage lowered from 150 to 100
• Afterburner of F35 and SU57 increased from 6 to 9 ( Draugr unchanged) this is to further increase the effectiveness for dogfighting

XFAD-4 Draugr

• HE impact damage lowered from 15 to 13.5
• HE blast damage 20 to 18
• JDAM bomb reload time increased from 20 to 25
• Napalm bomb reload time increased from 30 to 35
• Napalm inner (max damage radius) lowered from 8m to 4m
• Overall blast radius from 20m to 8m (retains 20m burning radius but no initial explosion damage)
• Napalm bomb shockwave damage has been drastically reduced.

A10 Warthog and SU-25TM Frogfoot Attack Jets:

• New look!
• Fresh audio for some of the weapons.
• Overall increase to maneuverability of the planes especially the elevators.
• Moved the old Air to Ground Missile camera from behind the plane to under the wing for better visibility
• Moved the cockpit cameras for a wider view when inside.
• Added a new secondary weapon with explosive rounds for soft targets.
• Various adjustments to the primary cannon to fit the roster of 2042.
• Various changes to air to ground missiles including rate of fire, damage, secondary projectile when designated for higher damage.
• Various changes to rockpods to fit the roster of 2042.
• Missile countermeasure now has a cooldown of 18 seconds, other jets retain their 12 seconds flare cooldown.
• We have added an emergency, secondary countermeasure similar to what the XFAD-4 Draugr uses for these vehicles as they are a big and slower target in the battlefield. This is meant to be used rarely to save the pilot, so expect long cooldowns and short life time. Players will have the option to choose this over repair.
• Belt speed has been reworked to function similarly to the IFVs we have released recently, it applies on all weapons.
• Added a new ability to enhance maneuverability of the airplane, choosing this will increase nearly all mobility factors; however, players will spawn with fewer ammo on specific weapons.
• Added a new ability that will increase the damage output on all weapons with cost of your maneuverability

Overwatch 2

The original Overwatch was a runaway success that garnered a sizeable player base and many awards, and many fans were understandably excited about the sequel. Overwatch 2’s announcement sparked excitement with promises of expanded PvE and a broader scope, but what we got in reality was a shooter that lost focus of what made it so special in the first place. The magic of Overwatch’s PvE was gone, and the expanded PvP options felt shallow and generic.

During the Q&A part of the earnings call, Wilson spoke about Battlefield being a massive franchise for EA, and takes responsibility for the development team behind Battlefield 2042 not working as closely with the community as it should have.

“We’ve always worked closely with the community, but we haven’t always worked as closely as we should have,” said Wilson. “We haven’t always really worked to help them understand the things that we’re building and for us to understand the things that they really want out of a Battlefield. We know that when we get it right, Battlefield is a giant franchise and often the biggest shooter in the year.”

When talking about the next Battlefield game, Wilson mentioned that, across North America and Europe, more than 600,000 players had taken part in the playtests so far. He added that the total play time measured up to thousands of hours of gameplay among all players. “The response has far exceeded expectations,” he said, adding that EA plans on bringing in more players into the playtests because of “this incredible global demand.” While more players from North America and Europe will be brought in, there are also plans to open up the playtests for Battlefield 6 in Asia.

EA had kicked off its playtests for what it has dubbed Battlefield Labs back in March. At the time, emails had been sent out to players that had signed up for the playtest, describing the process as being done in a “closed test environment.” Players part of the playtest have also been barred from recording and gameplay footage or taking screenshots.

March also saw the playtest focus on the core gunplay and movement for the next Battlefield title. In a lengthy post detailing plans for the Battlefield Labs playtest, EA spoke about wanting to nail the gameplay when it came to in-depth movement options as well as precise weapon feedback to make gunfights feel more dynamic and fun.

“We’re designing the combat experience to ensure players of all skill levels can enjoy our gunplay and movement systems,” said the company in its post. “Our goal is to offer gameplay that rewards skill with precise weapon feedback and movement options for veterans, while providing an intuitive experience for new players to learn and enjoy.”

While EA hasn’t yet revealed precise details about when Battlefield 6 will be released, the company revealed in the same earnings call that the title will be properly unveiled some time during the summer. Considering franchise tradition, the next Battlefield game will likely be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The new mode, dubbed Outbreak, is going to be Dead Space themed. Effectively an extraction mode, it will see players working together and taking on hordes of undead enemies while completing various objectives, based on the gameplay footage shown in the reveal trailer. The trailer, incidentally, also shows some good old Isaac Clarke cosmetics, for fans of the sci-fi survival horror franchise. Outbreak will go live on July 9, and will remain live for a week, until July 16.

Dead Space crossing over into Battlefield makes a certain amount of sense, in that both are EA-owned franchises, while Motive Studio, the developer of 2023’s Dead Space remake, was also officially brought abord as a Battlefield co-development studio earlier this year. Then again, there’s likely also going to be a portion of the series’ fanbase that will be displeased with its reliance on Call of Duty-esque crossovers to retain interest from players.

Meanwhile, work on the next mainline Battlefield game is underway, with leaks claiming that the shooter is targeting an October 2025 release.

Your squad is about to become humanity’s last defense.#Battlefield 2042 | @DeadSpace 📅 July 9 – 16 pic.twitter.com/2OsJIwbbur

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) July 3, 2024

30. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The fact that the world of Mirror’s Edge had such untapped potential, to the point that many desired a sequel years after its launch, is a testament to its impact. The first-person parkour model would be in other titles, most notably Dying Light, but the focus on platforming and skill-based jumping, not to mention the gorgeous dystopian world, helped it stand out.

So when DICE finally announced Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which offered a more open world, the excitement was palpable, even if it was revealed to be a reboot. While it retained the fluid movement and responsive controls, the world felt barren, the story rudimentary and the ending inane. DICE has no plans to return to the franchise, and for all its appealing aspects, Mirror’s Edge is pretty much dead.

29. Rise of the Ronin

As a fan of Team Ninja’s Nioh series and even finding some enjoyment in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s sad to see how Rise of the Ronin turned out. On the one hand, it’s earned some praise for its combat and even the directions you can take the story. On the other hand, critics have expressed disappointment with its open world, English voice acting, story and visuals.

While there were plenty of comparisons to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, I feel that they’re both distinct enough and trying to do their own thing. So why is Rise of the Ronin so underwhelming? Well, for starters, it’s a PS5 exclusive in development for seven years, with Sony’s support, which lends certain expectations. This isn’t to say that all reviews were equally hard on the game, as indicated by the 76 Metascore, but ranking fifth in physical sales for the UK at launch and dropping to 14th place the next week is nothing short of disappointing.

28. Need for Speed (2015)

Years of requests for a new Need for Speed Underground title and Electronic Arts delivered…sort of. Employing real-world legends like Ken Block, it was ultimately about a cast of street racers struggling to get noticed. While the customization and visuals received praise, the uninteresting story, AI prone to rubberbanding, multiplayer and lack of certain features (including drag racing) soured fans. There was also the always-online requirement with no option to pause. It would have qualified as one of the weaker games in the franchise, but then Payback happened and drastically lowered the bar.

27. Biomutant

When a game like Biomutant promises a massive world with choices and consequences, extensive character customization, vehicles, deep combat mechanics and much more, it’s hard to not get hyped. The fact that it was five years in the making, with Experiment 101 consisting of former Just Cause developers, further contributed to this. However, all those intriguing bits turned out to be incredibly shallow, from the story and combat to the mission design and annoying narrator. An update helped improve things, and with a million units sold in a few months, it was far from a flop, but it still has a ways to go.

26. The Order: 1886

Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886 received extensive attention for its graphics, with gorgeous facial animation and lighting. The presentation also received significant praise, but everything else left much to be desired. The campaign was ephemeral, with the disappointing story (despite such an intriguing setting and premise) and over-reliance on quick-time events bogging down the overall gameplay. Ending on a cliffhanger with no prospects for a sequel didn’t help either.

25. Exoprimal

Piloting exosuits to battle hordes of dinosaurs sounds like a good idea in theory, but what is live service? The developer’s to join the trend resulted in Exoprimal, which featured a story focused on time traveling, simulations run by a rogue AI called Leviathan, and so much dino slaying. The story felt disjointed, with the characters getting little development, and the lackluster map variety and repetitive objectives brought the experience down. The developer has expanded on the different modes at least while also adding new Alpha variants of Exosuits (Beta variants are coming soon), but its launch state was just so underwhelming.

24. Star Fox Zero

Not that Star Fox had the best run since peaking with Star Fox 64, but Zero had PlatinumGames involved. Surely, the Wii U controls would allow for a compelling shoot-’em-up experience. As you’ve probably guessed, that isn’t the case, as the controls were criticized for their unwieldiness. It also didn’t help that the experience heavily mirrored Star Fox 64, though some critics enjoyed the approach. With less than 500,000 copies sold, it flopped hard, and there hasn’t been a follow-up ever since.

23. Thief (2014)

One of the most beloved cult classic stealth series of all time, Thief was considered as revolutionary for PC players as Metal Gear Solid for consoles. So when Eidos Montreal announced a reboot, there was excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, especially after Garrett’s old voice actor was replaced. A dull performance was the least of the game’s problems, with the level design, AI and story all feeling out of sorts. While opinions settled more on the slightly above side, Thief (2014) couldn’t match up to the original games in player freedom and choice.

22. Days Gone

The praise for Days Gone, Bend Studio’s open-world zombie survival title, cropped up most when it was free on PlayStation Plus. Full credit to the team for sticking with it and adding sizable new content and features, but that’s not the launch version. The latter was roundly criticized for its excessive bugs, performance issues and loading screens (that too after delays for more polish), to say nothing of the bland story and awful dialogue. The open world, the motorcycle maintenance mechanics, the shooting – nearly everything had its downsides.

Make no mistake – there were some positives, from the immense undead hordes to the progression, and it notched up some impressive sales numbers, topping the UK physical charts for three weeks in a row and outselling the combined total of Bend’s previous games. However, it was nowhere near the high bar set by first-party Sony titles. Perhaps for this reason, the publisher didn’t greenlight a sequel and directors John Garvin and Jeff Ross subsequently left the studio. As beloved as it is now, there’s no denying that Days Gone underwhelmed at launch.

21. RAGE 2

For its time, RAGE was trying to do something technologically ahead of its time courtesy of id Tech 5. However, it faced criticism for its overall story and forgettable characters, not to mention the aggravating cliffhanger at the end. The fact that it launched after the more successful Borderlands, which captured the Mad Max feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland far better, also didn’t help. Nevertheless, it did receive some praise for its visuals, combat, side missions and AI.

With RAGE 2, Avalanche Studios decided to go for a more traditional open-world first-person shooter with vehicles. You had the usual enemy camps to clear, some points of interest and enemy convoys to assault, while the story was a paint-by-numbers “gather the MacGuffins” before a showdown with the big bad. The combat and visuals were still worthy of praise, but everything else felt further downgraded over the original, and it had microtransactions.

20. Immortals of Aveum

Coming from a new team with a five-year development cycle and emphasis on a single-player campaign with no microtransactions, Immortals of Aveum was a noble endeavor. Problems arose with the overall story, graphical issues on consoles, iffy dialogue (with the cast trying its very best to elevate it), and controls. With the emphasis on fast-paced mage combat, encounters could feel repetitive, ultimately underwhelming despite some impressive set pieces. Again, it received updates and new content while attracting a following, but Immortals of Aveum failed to leave a mark.

19. Shenmue 3

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) craved since the second game’s release in 2001. An announcement years in the making with $6 million in crowd-funding. A launch finally happening four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver. Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2015 and was panned for its outdated mechanics and storyline that ended on yet another cliffhanger. While some found the antiquated mechanics to be the appeal, it ended up feeling inconsequential and just another chapter in the ongoing story which would likely end.

18. The Callisto Protocol

Spiritual successors to classics from the original creators never fail to generate attention, as seen with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. This Dead Space tribute sported gorgeous visuals punctuated by over-the-top and grotesque death sequences. Delays and declarations of crunch didn’t help, nor did the performance issues at launch. Of course, despite all that, the experience was dragged for being overtly linear with shoddy melee combat, no option to skip the death scenes, a short playtime, heaps of unrealized potential and ultimately, not measuring up to the legacy of Dead Space.

17. Rainbow Six Extraction

After the success of the limited-time mode Outbreak in Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft did what any self-serving publisher would do – spin it off into a new game and monetize it. Extraction would take a while to launch, initially announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine in 2019 (and eventually abandoning the name for obvious reasons).

It would finally arrive in January 2022 after multiple delays and revealed itself as a session of interconnected areas with procedurally generated objectives and enemies. The sparse content, terrible objectives, bad AI, laughable story and repetition sadly made for a dull experience. While the developer would tout three million players in the first week (likely in no small part thanks to Game Pass), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered it past the first month.

16. Crackdown 3

Before Microsoft pushed cloud gaming via Game Pass, it hyped the computational powers of the same and how they would revolutionize gaming. Crackdown 3 was an example, touted as having a fully destructible open world. It eventually relegated into a separate mode, which quickly died out, while the base campaign launched after years of delay and generated ire for its archaic, repetitive design. Could you have some mindless fun? Sure, but it was a far cry from what Microsoft hyped the project to be and far from the next big leap for the franchise.

15. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has always occupied a weird place due to its shorter length and unorthodox features (like the titular villain). Releasing in the shadow of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 didn’t help – unfortunately, that same fate awaited Resident Evil 3 remake. Despite some fantastic visuals and combat, it was more notable for omitting areas (city hall, the clock tower and more were nowhere to be seen) or changing some of the original’s most iconic moments.

Barring the final sequence, none of them felt like an improvement. The fact that Mercenaries wasn’t included, but we got Resistance, a terrible asymmetrical multiplayer mode, didn’t help. Even with sales at 8.4 million, Resident Evil 3 is considered the weakest of the modern remakes.

14. Wolfenstein Youngblood

MachineGames delivered not one but two excellent Wolfenstein titles, reviving the franchise for a new generation with some incredibly cinematic storytelling that remains impressive to this day. How did it follow these up? Why, with a co-op title focusing on B.J. Blazkowicz’s daughters, Jessie and Zofia. The initial gameplay showings weren’t terrible, and the prospect of venturing to Paris to take out Nazis was appealing.

Unfortunately, Wolfenstein Youngblood fundamentally failed to capture what made the previous games so successful. Enemies were bullet sponges, causing players to constantly run out of ammo, and the missions were forgettable, with bizarre hub-like stages that felt utterly unnecessary to the campaign’s flow. Throw in terrible AI when playing solo and microtransactions, and it felt like a poorly conceived side story rather than a proper follow-up to MachineGames’ hits.

13. Forspoken

You want to believe that Luminous Productions had good intentions when designing Forspoken, first announced as Project Athia. Boasting a premier writing staff and billed as a two-year PS5 exclusive, it could have been the developer’s next big thing. While the combat wasn’t terrible, it did little to uplift the barren open world and dull activities.

The initially awful dialogue and plot also weighed it down, but even as things improved over time, the story was over quickly. It wasn’t long before the developer declared that Forspoken’s sales were “lackluster” and by May, Luminous was reorganized and merged into the publisher.

12. Mighty No. 9

Also considered one of the worst games ever made, Mighty No. 9’s development history would have suggested otherwise. It was helmed by a new team at Comcept who promised a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise when the developer had effectively kept the series on the back burner.

Then the delays happened, and that whole second Kickstarter campaign to fund a completely different project. By the time Mighty No. 9 launched, it was beset by performance issues, terrible voice acting, lack of content and an overall feel that screamed “cheap imitation” rather than spiritual successor.

11. Skull and Bones

Before its multitude of delays that whittled any faith that anyone had in the developer to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones had some potential. Its first announcement trailer gave the vibe of an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but a stronger focus on naval combat that fans had demanded for years. Of course, then the delays happened, followed by reports of reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, incompetent upper management, leadership departures, etc. When Skull and Bones was close to launching – for real this time – Yves Guillemot made the baffling decision to call it a quadruple-A game instead of the tried and true “triple-A.”

Upon launch, and to no one’s surprise, Skull and Bones was a live service grind for “loot”, punctuated by increasingly dull missions and tedious back and forth. Good thing it sold for $70 and included microtransactions. The results were telling – less than one-fourth of Sea of Thieves’ launch sales in the UK and allegedly 850,000 players, including those who played the free trial.

10. Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have the best of reveals, competing against the first-ever gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the same E3 showcase. Nevertheless, despite how many felt about the lack of resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actors, it didn’t look terrible either. Live service was seeing a downturn, but with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal at the helm, how could it go wrong?

Cut to the underwhelming beta and full release, and the distinction between Marvel’s Avengers and a title like Marvel’s Spider-Man became clearer. Despite unique kits for its heroes and some decent visuals, the mission design, objectives and loot were subpar. Post-launch support added some new heroes and content, which did little to raise the player count, and it was subsequently delisted from storefronts in September 2023.

9. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

While one may joke that Call of Duty is a disappointment year in and year out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 felt especially egregious. Reports indicated that it was to be an expansion to Modern Warfare 2 focusing on the Mexican cartel that underwent a reboot into a full-fledged game. Calling it that feels dirty due to the painfully short campaign with its lackluster and ultimately inconsequential story that sets up yet another sequel.

Perhaps even worse is the Open Combat Missions, promising sandbox-style action but coming off as lazy with simplistic objectives. Multiplayer was knee-capped out of the gate with the focus on remastered maps for its core 6v6 modes, and despite some solid gameplay, the age-old issues of skill-based matchmaking (or at least how COD approaches it) and connection issues still cropped up. Zombies was the only good thing about this release, but that’s been abandoned after some lackluster updates. At least the microtransactions continue to roll in.

8. Anthem

After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda, it was the turn of the main BioWare team to produce something special. It was…a live service looter shooter, which emphasized co-op over the developer’s tried and true single-player story-driven approach. As impressive as the initial gameplay reveal seemed, it was reportedly fake – Anthem’s development period was plagued with issues, from crunch to terrible management.

The result is a mess, with poor characterization and dialogue, bad mission design and objectives, a baffling lack of quality of life, performance issues, bugs, glitches, unimaginative loot and a barren endgame. Despite changes and updates, Anthem’s attempt at a do-over was ultimately rejected by EA, and support is effectively dead (though servers remain available).

7. Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Speaking of an underwhelming launch, we have the developer going from Ghost Recon Wildlands, which grew into something great to Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its removal of AI teammates, looter shooter elements, bland open world, bullet sponge drones, bugs, glitches, the list goes on. Why did the developer suddenly want to adopt a shared world shooter approach with the franchise (besides live service revenue)? No one knows, but it was disastrous. The developer would eventually claw a good game out of it, one that still fell short of Wildlands, but at least offered a more tactical experience without worrying about gear scores.

6. Resident Evil 6

After Resident Evil 5, impressions of the franchise weren’t exactly the most positive, with many feeling it veered too much into a more action-heavy approach. Even if Resident Evil 6’s trailers were full of action, there was still the hype behind seeing so many fan favorite characters (and Jake) tearing it up together. The result offered some pretty good combat but flopped in multiple ways. The characters felt off, and the overall pacing of walk a few feet, cutscene, rinse, repeat was a killer. While Resident Evil 6 saw decent sales, its critical reception was in the gutter, but thankfully, it led to the rebooting in Resident Evil 7: biohazard.

5. Payday 3

Considering the ups and downs that Payday 2 saw, it was in a pretty good spot by the time Starbreeze stopped producing new content. Payday 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to start over with a fresh new slate, avoiding its predecessor’s mistakes while ushering in a new age of heist-focused co-op gameplay. Of course, it wasn’t to be with the always-online requirement and lack of an offline mode souring fans early.

This would come back to bite the development team when server and matchmaking issues ensured fans couldn’t play for days. Even after their resolution, the sequel faced heavy criticism for removing features present in Payday 2, whether it was the pre-heist planning map, text chat, or just the option to unready. Sales were below expectations, and given the poor reception, Starbreeze has replaced its CEO to try and turn the ship around. Thus far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

4. Redfall

Arkane Austin, which specialized in immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey – didn’t inspire too much confidence when it was revealed to be working on a co-op looter shooter. The lack of an offline mode or progress for other players except the host in co-op also didn’t help. On the bright side, the state of Redfall made both issues feel like water under the bridge.

Horrendous AI, performance issues, bugs galore (including catchy music playing during serious scenes), horrible bosses, a dull story, lackluster characterization, bad mission design – everything went wrong. You may argue that expectations were low, but Redfall sunk lower, and still flounders despite some major updates.

3. Battlefield 2042

This one hurt for longtime fans of the franchise, especially coming off of a relatively disappointing Battlefield 5. With no campaign, Battlefield 2042 promised a return to everything that made the series great, wrapped in the veneer of modern combat and massive 128-player battles. Reports emerged of troubled development, and the beta earned some ire, but fans were still hopeful.

Cue the disappointment and savage response on Steam, with the sequel becoming one of the lowest-rated games in the platform’s history overnight. From the removal of the class system to the visuals, destructibility, map design and the scoreboard – that damned scoreboard – Battlefield 2042 was a letdown in every way. It’s improved over the years but is still a far cry from the series’ peak.

2. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Before it was revealed as a live service looter shooter with a boring mission design, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a suitable amount of hype. How could fans not be excited when it was Rocksteady’s first new game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight? After its disastrous showing last year, it was delayed almost a year from its original release. Maybe it would add an offline mode and tone down its live service elements, including but not limited to microtransactions and a battle pass.

As it turns out, none of these things happened, and when Suicide Squad launched, it was begrudged for its terrible mission design, repetitive gameplay and boring endgame. After Warner Bros. admitted that it fell short of expectations, Rocksteady would focus on fixing the plethora of network issues and bugs while prepping the first post-launch season. Unsurprisingly, Season of the Joker was another miserable disappointment with its utter lack of story content, boring “new” missions, annoying grind to unlock the Joker as a playable character and audacity to charge for immediate access.

1. Mass Effect Andromeda

Of all the games to disappoint over the years, this one probably hurt the most. It’s not like Mass Effect Andromeda was the next mainline title in the franchise or one that had the budget and resources of Mass Effect 2 and 3. However, as the first new entry in five years, fans looked forward to it all the same. The potential for a new story and setting with an open-world twist also sparked interest. When Andromeda launched, it was quickly clowned for its bugs, facial animation and dialogue.

Those who dived deeper discovered barren planets, uninteresting characters who couldn’t hold a candle to the original heroes and a low-stakes plot. The underwhelming critical reception and sales wouldn’t outright kill the franchise entirely (as evidenced by the recent Legendary Edition and upcoming sequel), but it was the first time that fans began to question BioWare. Of course, Anthem happened, and the rest is history, but Mass Effect Andromeda hurt more.

In a recently published message, the Battlefield franchise’s general manager Byron Beede revealed that Battlefield 2042’s seventh season of post-launch content – which went live last month – will be its last. Though the game will still receive new challenges, events, modes, and ongoing maintenance through future updates, by and large, DICE is instead turning its attention to the future of the franchise.

“While we’ve enjoyed and are proud of creating these seasons of additional content for Battlefield 2042, it is now necessary for us to turn from the present to the future,” Beede wrote. “What this ultimately means is that Season 7 will serve as the final season for Battlefield 2042. After Season 7 concludes, we will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and of course, ongoing maintenance, but we are moving away from delivering official seasons.

“We know this news may be disappointing.  However, as we looked at what the future of the series required, it became clear it was time for us to shift our resources and focus to be fully dedicated to what comes next.”

As part of those future plans, it has been announced that the Dead Space remake developer Motive Studio is building a new team dedicated to Battlefield, while also simultaneously continuing development on its previously announced Iron Man game.

The headlining addition for Season 6 will be a new map, called Redacted. Set in a secret underground facility in Scotland, the map will be designed around claustrophobic indoor environments, close-quarter combat, and tense shootouts in contained areas.

Additionally, Season 6: Dark Creations will, as always, also bring with it a new Battle Pass, with 70 of its 100 tiers being Premium (read: paid), with a number of unique skins available for players to unlock. On top of that, you can also expect new weapons, new gadgets, and a new vehicle. Check out the trailers below for more details.

Season 6: Dark Creations will also be available for free to everyone from October 12-16.

Battlefield 2042 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Sales were up by 22 percent, thanks to price promotions on consoles (as per Games Industry). God of War Ragnarok went from sixth to third place due to hardware bundle sales. Final Fantasy 16, which was in fourth place, has dropped out of the charts to 11th place as sales fell by 39 percent.

The rest of the charts are similar to last week, with Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch going from 11th to ninth place and Elden Ring rising from 19th to tenth place. Check out Gfk’s top-ten best-selling physical titles for the week ending July 15th below.

Along with missing features and questionable design decisions, it also had numerous bugs, server issues and weapon balance problems. In a new tweet, Joakim Bodin, former senior software engineer at DICE who now works at Epic Games as a senior backend engineer, reveals that the game “never stood much chance” of being great at launch.

“This game had many iterations, and the deadline never changed much, so it never stood much chance of being great at launch.” Nevertheless, Bodin is proud to “have pushed hard to have this game have full cross-play, progression and (mostly) commerce. Its online systems will serve future titles well.”

Reports of Battlefield 2042’s problems began shortly before launch, with Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson discussing how it started as a battle royale title. Management was allegedly “not committed enough to the project, with creative being simply told to do X, Y, and Z.” The negatively-received Specialists were also reportedly added due to management enjoying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019).

Electronic Arts has since revamped its approach to Battlefield development, opting for multiple studios and having Respawn CEO Vince Zampella as the new head of the franchise. While it’s yet to announce any new games, Ridgeline Games (helmed by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto) is working on a new narrative campaign while Ripple Effect Studios has a new Battlefield experience in the works. In the meantime, Battlefield Mobile has also been cancelled. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

This game had many iterations, and the deadline never changed much, so never stood much chance being great at launch.

I'm proud though to have pushed hard to have this game have full cross play, progression and (mostly) commerce. It’s online systems will serve future titles well https://t.co/l6tbqFhzgz pic.twitter.com/kCUx77aGqF

— Joakim Bodin (@jbripley) May 26, 2023