Battlefield 2042 is supposedly postponed - slowly is it ridiculous

Current rumors of industry insiders indicate a possible release shift from Battlefield 2042. The shooter would share such a fate with many other, big titles. Tarek Zehrer, free author at Meinmmo, finds: Slowly the release policy in the industry will only be annoying.

What are the rumors? Several industry insiders speculate in recent days about a possible release shift from Battlefield 2042. They report all that their source reports from a possible release in 2022. (via thegamer.com)

You do not call any concrete details, many consider the possibility but given for quite. Because since August it is relatively quiet about Battlefield 2042. And that, though the release on October 22 is not far away and the franchise is one of the most important things from EA.

So no one would be surprised if it would come to it. I would also not surprise a release in 2022, yet I have to say: slowly it will be ridiculous and only annoying. Why do we still need release dates?

A short notice in advance: The article is directed against the release policy, not against the developers behind the respective games. They only have a limited impact on a concrete release date and anyway to fight with crunch and at high working hours. That's why I want to explicitly exclude them from the criticism.

Release dates are often only placeholders

What is the problem? You look at the larger releases of recent years, you notice: A concrete date has only minor significance.

Especially when playing with a high budget and online functions, the trend is clear, but also singleplayer games are affected.

Here are just a few examples that many of you should be familiar:

The MMORPG New World had to move his release several times - now discusses another shift Dying Light 2 recently moved his release to 2022 The Europa-Release Lost Ark was only recently moved to 2022 Halo Infinite - Microsoft's flagship franchise has relocated the release at short notice by one year Cyberpunk 2077 was even moved four times overall

It is becoming increasingly rarer that a title comes out on the day, for which he was announced. And does not misunderstand me: the fact that a release is shifted is not necessarily bad for me.

If a game still needs time, Publishers and developers are simply taking time and move a release if necessary.

But why do you ever have to put such a short date, the developer often relies under time pressure and then can not be adhered to? And that in times, where crunch is increasingly being discussed and criticized?

Why are release dates always imprecisely and become, at least felt, are always incorrectly set? And much more important: Why does the customer have to notice that? One reason is probably that the games become gigantic, complex and more expensive in development.

Therefore, it is difficult to change something: About the exact reasons can only be speculated from the outside. But I believe that it is related to the millions of marketing and hype campaigns in the industry. Meanwhile, months and years are started in advance large promotions.

In addition, big publishers often have to disclose their exact plans in investor conferences. Accordingly, they are almost forced to present a kind of roadmap. Finally, the big publishers are billions-heavy companies.

This in turn can lead to good ideas and visions for games already destroyed in advance. The hype is built up, fans are looking forward to fever on the release - and then he does not come.

Thus, players lose more and more the interest in the product, the hype flattens and in the worst case, the high expectations will not be fulfilled, as with Cyberpunk. This is not good for the fans who are disappointed, not good for the devs that are abrizzable and not good for publishers and studio whose call is scratched scratched

However, a big game of recent years has made how it can run.

More about Crunch:

Red Dead Redemption 2: Massive overtime for a massive game Crunch Time: Young developer works dead - 89 hours week Internal e-mail fires discussion about overtime at CyBerpunk 2077

Do it rather like apex legends

How did Apex? A positive example of the younger past is Apex Legends. The Free2Play shooter just appeared, without great advance notice. Without months or even years of marketing campaign.

Apex suddenly dived and had millions of players within a few days. Although it is a free2play game, but even in the segment it is difficult today to enforce itself as newcomers.

Whether the game has been postponed internally? Who knows? Outside the team and the publisher, nothing is known. And that's exactly what is the point: there can be no shitstorm if nobody has come in advance from the development of the game. Developers could at least work with a little more peace.

I would just want me to focus more on bringing games to the market in good condition and take time.

For years of development, unforeseen events can always provide for chaos. This has been able to experience the industry very impressively using Covid.

So just announces the game when it's done! I do not have to know two years in advance if Shooter X then appears sometime 202x, or maybe not. How refreshing would it be when games would be announced just before release?

But what do you think about the topic? Do you disturve the release jourm as well as me? Or does it just look less? Discuss with us in the comments.

Incidentally, there are also examples of smaller games that show how it can run: 2 small indie games on steam make one thing much better than the big AAA title