Currently people seem to be super excited…over a single map being released. YouTubers and players alike are celebrating that we’re finally getting maps. But do I have to remind you that during BF1’s life, we already had 5 maps released, and 6th map was planned for June. Then there was Tsar DLC with 6 more maps, and first half of TT with 2 more maps planned until the end of the year.
Do you actually believe that we’re getting at least 10 fully fledged multiplayer maps by the end of this year?? I’ve heard people saying that we’re getting 7-8 maps with US expansion. Are you people crazy or that naive?
They are gullible and naive. The perfect mark for a company like EA. Its sad because BF was my all-time favorite PC game series, and I had lots of fun with BF1 and some with BFV, but I think EA is snuffing it out.
EDIT: It sounds so insulting, “gullible and naive,” but all of us are those things to start off in life. The question is: do we learn from experience? This situation is actually a good lesson for the younger generation. They may have heard a saying such as: “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” or simply “nothing in life is free.” So now they know, from their own experience. They’ll have many more.
You have to remember that their income can be extremely affected by how Battlefield does as a franchise. Since we are in a downturn Youtubers are clambering for whatever they can get.
You can see which ones are hurting by looking to see the diversity of content they show. LevelCap, Jackfrags, and such are diversifying their channels because of this.
As for the subject matter, never did like the live service model … it often feels like a method of knocking out incomplete games. I don’t buy into the hype for future content either based upon what I’ve seen so far.
Don’t forget Battlefield 4 had 3 DLC packs of 4 maps each released by the following summer. That’s 12 extra maps by this time, and BF4 launched with 10 maps vs 8 for BFV.
Defenders of Live Service will tell you that BFV was rushed to launch last fall, so the full team was working on launch content. They didn’t have the opportunity to shift people off to getting post launch DLC content ready. So that’s what they have been doing for 6 months and why the content is coming now.
Do I think we would have gotten better content if BFV wasn’t rushed? Yes,
Do I think Live Service can in any way match the level of content a premium season pass has delivered? Not a chance.
BF4 had 5 DLC packs of 4 maps each added within just over a year of launch. That’s 20 maps, plus new weapons and vehicles, bringing the map total to 30 within just over a year. BF3 had 5 maps packs added within less than 18 months of launch, totaling just under 30 maps. BF1 ended up with over 30 maps as well.
No way can I be convinced a live service can match that kind of map content. Unsurprisingly not one of those premium season pass games had issues with sales, player base, or content.
Ask the Anthem players or whatever is left of them…
Live service and rushed development completely decimated that game. Last I heard, their playerbase is down to less than 2500 on Xbox One. Also the Bioware devs have gone completely radio silent for over a month. And that game was released in February. For a game to get snuffed out that quickly is NOT a good sign.
I can only assume that BFV will follow suit if DICE doesn’t pull their heads out of their and start delivering quality content within a consistent timeframe instead of around with the stupid battle royale and other throw-away gamemodes.
Battlefield live service has been like being stuck in desert. You get told by a traveler that water is on its way. The traveler returns only to say that he forgot the water but he will be back with water in one month. The traveler finally arrives but has only brought one 12oz bottle of water and then rides off once again…When will the traveler return?
All though I’m no defender of the Live Service model I will say simply blaming it on being a Live Service is a gross oversimplification and simply not correct. A Live Service can be done well. The problem is this game was never a Live Service. The model was simply used by EA for an excuse to ship a half finished game. Nothing more. It’s one thing to release a f2p game that is initially shallow and they patch in more content but to release a game with AAA price tag in the state BFV was released in is inexcusable. For the LS model to even remotely have beeen viable for Battlefield 5 they would have at min needed BFV to be fully finished , polished and full of content day one. On top of that least a year’s worth of future content ready to go to drip feed while they work on year 2 content. Instead we got an early access game that they charged full price for and the rest of it to be shipped through year one. By the time anything truly meaningful gets to the game what’s left of the player base will be in the wind. Go look at Anthem which followed the same model. It’s totally dead.
Ok, while I accept your premise that LS can be done well, my response would be:
No person with experience with EA over the past 10 years can say with a straight face they expected anything different. The moment we hears the words “live service” in connection with EA we tried to warn everyone. EA/DICE cant get a working patch out once per quarter… and suddenly they are going to produce constant free updates? Like, how?
I agree with you about what it would have taken for it to work (finished polished game, ready to roll on day one, plus tons more already finished in the LS pipeline) but for one thing… thats not how EA/DICE does things, ever. BFV isn’t some anomaly. Remember BF4? They couldn’t even figure out how to get paracel, dawn, and shanghai to not-crash for MONTHS after release. And suddenly that same company people expect to deliver a polished functional LS game? Its amazing to me people thought that was even remotely possible from EA/DICE.
And for another, it IS the “fault” of LS in that it shielded DICE from having to actually do work (new maps) and let them fantasize about all that free money they’d be getting for doing skin recolors and porting guns from BF1. It was always a mirage. LS should be for f2p, NOT full priced games.
EA tried to have it both ways, and just like with Battlefront 2 and Anthem. Full price, but f2p model? Thats such BS, and now everyone can see why. I get your points, but please please please recognize that there is no universe in which EA will get this right “the next time.” Thats how they always do this: yeah sure we messed up, but we learned so much and the next game will hit the ground running!
Except it won’t. This will repeat itself. I kept hoping EA/DICE would turn the ship around, and BF1 again got my hopes up. Even though I loathe any metro style map, and BF1 had tons of them, it was beautiful and fun from day 1. So I thought “ok, maybe BFV is going to be even better!”
And the I read that BFV would try to chase Fortnite, and my heart sank for the last time with this franchise.
IMO it’s all about doing the bare minimum for maximum profits these days.
LS might have worked if they had released a polished game with additional content pre-made and ready to go at regular release dates. Considering they didn’t even have their micro transactions ready until long after release, (and to date we still only have 2 lousy elite skins and a few somewhat undesirable weapon skins) shows how unprepared they were to back up their own LS model with micro transactions. That just shows that they weren’t fully prepared to back the LS model IMO.
Bear in mind, they have already made their profits once enough people initially purchase their game. They don’t care if people leave afterwards if they find the game too broken or unsatisfying. It doesn’t really take money away from them. Hence why patches are released more buggy than their predecessors, there is no real ‘care’ to deliver a good quality game. Anyone who does remain and spends any amount of money buying micro transactions is just gravy to them.
You know, I would gladly uninstall this game and wait for a year when more content (i do not mean skins lol) is added, but I cant since ToW weekly awards are gone after it (you cannot buy them when the week is over)
‘But Premium splits the community’…
Producing a bad game with no content has, in my opinion, caused an actual and much larger split. I have around 30 friends on PSN I know only from Battlefield, out of those 30 there’s about 3 who are regular BFV players, maybe a couple more that are casual, all the others are back on older titles or different games altogether.
Live service, lol.
Always found that statement strange. We’re already split by platform and gamemode choice, plus Dice releasing Firestorm and a new game mode seeminly every other week doesn’t help.
Then I remember it was probably an excuse and they gambled that they’d make more money from micro transactions.
@fragnstein
So you are saying that the BF3 to BF1 with the maps+ new weapons packages it had was pay to win? I am saying they should put the maps for free and keep the weapons etc for sale.
It is the only way around the community split due to map access
