The free-to-play model has been adopted by almost every publisher in the games industry, pulling in as many players as possible and then selling in-game cosmetics to rake in an incredible amount of money.
Microsoft made the incredible decision to make Halo Infinite’s multiplayer free-to-play, and Warzone, Fortnite, and Apex continue to dominate the shooter market.
Many expected Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone to be the free-to-play offering, but this wasn’t the case. However, it’s been reported that EA are considering adding a free-to-play element to the game after its disappointing launch.
Battlefield 2042 was one of the most anticipated shooters of 2021 but issues such as poor performance, the disappearance of the classic class system, and the controversial bullet spread mechanic turned away both new and returning players.
A declining player count has meant that 2018’s Battlefield V has had more players on Steam, and EA are reportedly “very disappointed” with how it has performed.
Industry insider Tom Henderson reported the news on January 20, claiming that EA are “looking at all options” with Battlefield 2042, which includes looking at free-to-play “in some capacity.”
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EA is reportedly
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 20, 2022
very disappointed with how Battlefield 2042 has performed and is
"looking at all the options" when it comes to the
title, this is including looking at Free to Play in some
capacity.
I'll have more on this tomorrow.
It remains to be seen what this free-to-play model may look like, but Henderson said that he’ll reveal more information on January 21.
The community wasn’t convinced that going free would help Battlefield 2042, as the issues are rooted in the game itself. “Making it F2P will only give them another 10k players for like 2 weeks and then those players will leave,” said one player. “This game is gonna get ditched.”
“Sadly, I’m happy that they’ve admitted being very disappointed with it,” explained another popular leaker, TheMW2Ghost. “Hopefully that’ll shift the game in the right direction, and adding a scoreboard to the game isn’t seen as an incredible act of legacy feature implementation.”
DICE recently unveiled plans to add a proper Scoreboard to Battlefield 2042, and while fans were happy to see it return, they were shocked it was never there in the first place.