Electronic Arts’ Battlefield franchise now has four studios working on it; the latest is Motive, which made the 2023 remake of Dead Space and Star Wars Squadrons in 2020. Coming with that announcement, however, is confirmation that the seventh season of content in Battlefield 2042 will be its last.
Patrick Klaus, Motive’s general manager, announced the changes in a statement on Tuesday. Motive joins DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect as teams underneath Respawn Entertainment founder Vince Zampella to revitalize the long-tenured shooter.
Klaus said the end of seasonal content doesn’t mean all support for Battlefield 2042 is over. “We will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and of course, ongoing maintenance,” he wrote, “but we are moving away from delivering official seasons.”
Battlefield 2042’s most recent season, “Turning Point” launched last month. Its first season, Zero Hour, was delayed into the summer of 2022. The game launched in November 2021 and was the lowest-rated game in the 22-year-old series, with fan reaction far more disappointed than the critical reception.
Battlefield 2042 was troubled by numerous bugs at launch, requiring developers to hurry out two quick patches within three weeks of each other. That, plus the battle pass delay, and the lack of even a multiplayer scoreboard until the following spring, led to dramatic declines in the player base.
Zampella was brought on just weeks after Battlefield 2042 launched, another sign Electronic Arts saw a franchise in serious trouble. The shakeup also cost DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson his job.
What about the Iron Man video game?
In a separate announcement made on Motive’s studio website, Klaus reported in on Motive’s Iron Man project, for those concerned that Battlefield duties might impinge on that. “The team made excellent progress this year, hitting a major internal milestone and laying a robust foundation for the journey ahead,” Klaus wrote. “Iron man is an important priority for Motive, and I’m very proud of the work we’ve accomplished so far.”
Klaus specified that the team working on Iron Man is separate from the one on Battlefield, and that the latter will expand to meet its new duties.
The Iron Man game Motive is working on was announced in 2022; at the time it was said to be in pre-production. The project’s executive producer is Olivier Proulx, who was a producer on 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Eidos Montreal, as well as Marvel’s Avengers in 2020, for Crystal Dynamics.
Featured image via Steam
