EA/DICE mocks critics of BFV at launch party

[Raven722]

My take on this is that DICE is free to do whatever they wish with their games. If they want a bunch of women on the frontlines of World War 2 then go for it. People are entitled to their opinions. Some people want to see that in games. Others don't. Neither side is actually wrong for wanting the game to be one thing or another. The question shouldn't be "who is wrong for wanting the game a certain way" but rather "will DICE's decision to take this direction with their game hurt them"?

Looking at how badly Battlefield 5 was behind Black Ops 4 in pre-orders months ago (85% behind compared to Battlefield 1 being ahead of Infinite Warfare) and the report that physical sales of this latest entry were well below those of the previous, seemingly to the point where one cannot reasonably argue that digital sales made up for it and still well below Call of Duty, it seems to me that DICE may have hurt themselves with this decision. The critical reception of the game is lower than any main entries in the franchise with many complaints ranging from a lack of content to a fair amount of technical issues. This isn't going to help.

There also seems to be a complete lack of the customization options involving prosthetic limbs that raised some eyebrows from the initial trailer. So not only did DICE disregard the vocal critics of the community to some extent but they then failed to implement something those on the other side of the aisle praised them for. Whether this will eventually find its way in is unknown but there is certainly the sense that DICE backtracked on some of its more arguably absurd cosmetic decisions. This tells me that DICE definitely felt the pinch and while they conceded a bit for now, they're still not prepared to admit they may have made a bad choice.

They may very well want to re-evaluate whether patting themselves on the back for attempting to be inclusive is worth losing that much market share and income. If doing this was supposed to bring more people into the fold but ultimately ended up losing them a ton of sales then questions should be raised. Why didn't the people who supported this make up for the people who didn't? If such a thing was so important and such a barrier to entry for people then why are sales so far down compared to the previous title and the competitor? Are the people who we disregarded such a significant portion of our income? Is it worth us losing a lot of sales to take our games in that direction? Either they press on with this new philosophy for their game design and hope it works out or they abandon it and go back to making games the way it seems their currently established fanbase prefers.

All that being said, something I touched on earlier in my post is the REAL issue with Battlefield 5 at this point is not even what the reasons behind the decrease in initial sales were. Rather, how the game has so many issues for those who bought it. When you take an already much lower base of players and subject them to a game lacking in content and with a number of technical issues... well... DICE may not be able to recover this game's already tarnished image. The first update they just released is causing all servers to have a moderate amount of ping. At least last I checked. Your biggest competitor had its Battle Royale mode on Day 1, has been praised for it, and is already expanding on it. Meanwhile, you tell your customers to wait 4 months for your version of it and with hardly any info on it. Black Ops 4 has enjoyed some pretty good press. Battlefield 5 has been caked in negativity since its reveal. This is DICE dropping the ball at nearly every turn.