All good things come to an end, so the saying goes, and such is the case with Battlefield 2042.
Today, Electronic Arts announced DICE will not release future content for the game beyond Season 7, released last month. Titled Turning Point, the season arrived with a new urban map set in Chile, several weapons, and a new gadget, along with a revamped map based on the Stadium location from Hourglass, two themed events, and a new weapon and vehicle to come.
According to the announcement, DICE is looking to the future of the series by shifting its focus and resources to what comes next. When Season 7 concludes, the studio will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and ongoing maintenance but will move away from delivering official seasons.
Today’s announcement also revealed that Motive Studio – the developers behind the remake of Dead Space and Star Wars: Squadrons – are building a team focused on Battlefield. The studio will join DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect in building the Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer and single-player experiences.
In a public statement, Motive’s general manager, Patrick Klaus, assured development continues to move forward on the Iron Man project, and the team has made excellent progress this year, hitting a major internal milestone and laying a foundation for the journey ahead. Klaus said Iron Man is an “important priority for Motive” and is “very proud” of the work accomplished.
Heads of the 2023 Dead Space remake, executive producer Philippe Ducharme, and creative director Roman Campos-Oriola will build a team at Motive to work alongside the Battlefield studios to help develop the future of the franchise, led by Battlefield and Respawn executive VP Vince Zampella and Battlefield senior VP and general manager Byron Beede.
Battlefield 2042 was released in November 2021 with myriad issues, causing DICE to push back the start of Season One. Not long after release, players started leaving in droves, especially on PC.
A few months later, DICE removed the popular Rush mode from the featured playlist, but after immense player backlash, the team restored Rush to the game. But in February 2022, some players were so fed up with the game they created a petition asking EA to provide refunds. The petition would eventually reach over 200,000 signatures.
After the release of update 4.00 in April 2022, which brought over 400 changes, including bug fixes, improvements to gameplay balancing, and other additions, the player count rebounded, and the game saw seven seasons released.