Xbox Game Pass launch was a "huge moment" for Battlefield 2042

DICE has revealed that the launch of Battlefield 2042 into Xbox Game Pass was a "huge moment" for the team, and the game needed to be "good."

Tom West

Published 04 Aug 2023

Since Battlefield 2042 joined Xbox Game Pass for Ultimate members via EA Play, the game has comfortably sat in the top 40 most-played games in our TrueAchievements gameplay chart. According to DICE, its launch into the service was a "huge moment" for the team due to the number of new players that would play the game, but it had to be "good."

"People trip and make mistakes," Battlefield 2042 developer says

Although DICE's latest shooter was poorly received when it launched on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One — we said it was "brimming with potential" despite its issues in our Battlefield 2042 review — DICE has continued to improve the experience with each new Season. It didn't seem to meet the expectations set by its players, or the developers themselves, at launch, and according to DICE senior producer Ryan McArthur, the game's launch into Xbox Game Pass was a "huge moment" for the team, and one they had "marked on the calendar," but Battlefield 2042 needed to be the game the team "wanted it to be when we launched it."

"One thing we talked about internally quite a lot was that if there was a moment in time where we were going to open this game up to a whole bunch of new players then it needs to be good," McArthur told GamesRadar+. "It needs to be the game that we wanted it to be when we launched it, and that really galvanized the team as we charged towards that date."

Battlefield 2042 Season 5: New Dawn is currently in full swing, and the latest update, which brought in another wave of new changes, also added a rework of the Orbital map, rounding out the ongoing improvements to the game's original maps.

"I think that's why every season has been better than the last. Look at not just the core work, but the weapons that we made, the fact that we reworked every single map that we shipped in this game at launch — that's something we've never done before," McArthur said. "While it was hard, it was also really fun for us. When I look back on my career, it's probably the journey that I'm most proud of.

"People trip and make mistakes. I think it's good for us to get a chance to come back and do what we think we can do best. It's been fun to see players jump back in and give us another chance, and for them to say, 'Yeah, you guys are getting where you're supposed to be.'"

In our Battlefield 2042 State of Play, we shared our thoughts on the game as it is now and how much fun it is to play.

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Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.