EA should 'blame' this game for Battlefield 2042's demise, not Halo

EA executive Laura Miele reportedly blames Halo Infinite for setting a positive example and poaching Battlefield 2042's playerbase. This line of thought could easily be applied to another mega-hit shooter that EA's responsible for.

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According to recent reports sourced from obtained internal documents, EA execs are trying to figure out where Battlefield 2042 went wrong. The usual suspects apply: Live games are difficult to make, the pandemic, and competitors. EA's Laura Miele reportedly mentioned Halo Infinite by name and suggested Halo's polished state set a high water mark for Battlefield 2042...which is a curious statement for two reasons.

One, Halo Infinite had lots of problems at launch. Monetization, bugs, glitches--Big Team Battle was nigh-unplayable for months and it currently has very serious issues with desync and cheating. Gunplay was polished. Many other things were not.

The other reasons it that EA actually owns one of Battlefield 2042's biggest competitors: Apex Legends.

On paper the comparison isn't that fair. Apex is F2P, and BF2042 is premium priced. Then again, EA did compare BF2042 to Halo, which is also F2P.

The reality is that Apex is far bigger than Battlefield 2042. It's also bigger than Halo Infinite (and rightly so because it's been on the market for longer, plus it's also on PlayStation).

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EA's F2P BR is nearing $2 billion in total in-game earnings and the game hit 100 million players in 2021.

Another key point is that EA's top-level management hasn't been coy about Battlefield 2042's failures.

Battlefield 2042's "disappointing sales" were a major reason the publisher lowered its yearly earnings forecast by $100 million.

"Battlefield 2042 did not meet our expectations," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a Q3 earnings call.

"Some of the decision choices that we made did not resonate with our community. We are fully committed to realizing full potential of the game and fully committed to our fans."

That being said, Battlefield 2042 didn't impact EA's bottom line all that much.

"Battlefield 2042 franchise would have accounted for significantly less than 10% of this year's bookings, and less than 5% of FY23's net bookings," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said.

"We're going to refrain from unit sales. Battlefield is less than 10% of our revenue. Clearly we sold less units that we thought we would."

"Remember these games are long tails. Our goal is to add new content, new ways to play, new excitement to stretch this out."