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Battlefield 2042’s Steam player count ‘falls below 1,000’ for the first time

Don't worry guys, DICE's scoreboard offensive will fix the game!

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EDMIX

Member
Is there any chance that more traditional multiplayer FPS games just don't really penetrate the market as much now that trends have veered toward more Battle Royale related content?

Maybe, but I would never say that is the issue with 2042. BFV had a BR mode and its one of the worst selling BF titles in history, I don't believe adding BR in this game would do any good cause its not as if those that like that mode, will play any shit or something that has it. 2042 has too many design issues to the point where a BR mode or not would be irrelevant to all this imho.

So i believe their focus should be on a more traditional BF title. I'm sure EA took the hint that adding BR won't just make everything sell as they saw BFV's sales and made that choice to not even have BR in 2042 at all. Even as a fan of the game myself, I never played that Hazard mode lol So I can't speak for all BF fans, but I'm sure most just want to play Rush, Conquest and Breakthrough and maybe the focus should on those modes.

If they are able to see no one is playing Hazard, willing to forgo adding certain modes like BR, willing to redesign the maps, they need to strongly consider that BF isn't the IP to do any of this new shit and the redesign and focus of the next BF needs to be on classic conservative BF concepts. Though BF has always had a bunch of new ideas every entry from destruction, to Levolution, fortification etc they mostly focused on concepts that would fit a war type situation, so I think the only idea that should remain should be those player counts. If they simply add the traditional class system back and simply make those characters solely avatars, I believe it will go a long way. You can experiment with BF sure, but there is a limit to how far folks will accept that.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Got to give credit to the marketing guys for convincing so many people that this was going to replicate the BF4 experience, just with 2x as many players and huge maps and a beta that we all played!
A+ credit to marketing department.

With the rise in YT, launch day reviews, and Metacritic scores peeling out at 7 am on release day I bet every single one of them were like:

"Holy fuck, were screwed! All the gamers will just wait till launch day and wait for reviews and streams and they'll avoid our shitty game!"

Then their reaction did a 180 to ear to ear smiles when their junior marketing analysts would show them stats in a meeting.....

"Don't worry guys. Gamers are idiots and will keep on pre-ordering your shitty games. Just make some slick preview vids and billboards across town and they'll totally forget about launch day info!"

high five 30 rock GIF
 

EDMIX

Member
A+ credit to marketing department.

With the rise in YT, launch day reviews, and Metacritic scores peeling out at 7 am on release day I bet every single one of them were like:

"Holy fuck, were screwed! All the gamers will just wait till launch day and wait for reviews and streams and they'll avoid our shitty game!"

Then their reaction did a 180 to ear to ear smiles when their junior marketing analysts would show them stats in a meeting.....

"Don't worry guys. Gamers are idiots and will keep on pre-ordering your shitty games. Just make some slick preview vids and billboards across town and they'll totally forget about launch day info!"

high five 30 rock GIF

I mean sure, but many on here were on the beta and hated it, played the early access and hated it and they even had early reviews.

I think any chance for someone to back out was pretty open at that point for them to just cancel. So its hard to just say the marketing department is why it sold as well as it did or something lol So I just don't know how this game became the second fastest selling BF in history other then more people liking what they played in that beta or early access then hated or something.

7.7 million played the beta.
4.2 million got it opening week making it the second fastest selling in history

So about 3 million or so didn't want it, but its hard to see it as a hard science as I recall BF1 actually having more play the beta.

13 million played BF1 beta
3.4 million got it launch week.

So maybe the initial reaction to it being in the future got people hooked or something and what they played in the beta that thought would be fixed if they didn't like it, where many tired BF1, didn't buy it launch week, but overall bought it as time went on aka more legs. So maybe the key takeaway here is that a beta might show how much interest there is initially of a title regardless of how it does opening week or something. Regardless, enough time and info was given for anyone to back out of that pre-order.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
So I just don't know how this game became the second fastest selling BF in history other then more people liking what they played in that beta or early access.


The "sales" numbers where based off unique player count, this means anyone that tried the game but did not buy it was counted as "sales" for the number given. This was confirmed by the same person who supplied the numbers originally quoted all over the Internet.





So there's your other reason, moving on...
 
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winjer

Gold Member
A+ credit to marketing department.

With the rise in YT, launch day reviews, and Metacritic scores peeling out at 7 am on release day I bet every single one of them were like:

"Holy fuck, were screwed! All the gamers will just wait till launch day and wait for reviews and streams and they'll avoid our shitty game!"

Then their reaction did a 180 to ear to ear smiles when their junior marketing analysts would show them stats in a meeting.....

"Don't worry guys. Gamers are idiots and will keep on pre-ordering your shitty games. Just make some slick preview vids and billboards across town and they'll totally forget about launch day info!"

high five 30 rock GIF

Indeed.
Makes me wonder how many suckers are going to fall for the same scheme, when the next BF is launched.
 

EDMIX

Member

The "sales" numbers where based off unique player count, this means anyone that tried the game but did not buy it was counted as "sales" for the number given. This was confirmed by the same person who supplied the numbers originally quoted all over the Internet.





So there's your other reason, moving on...


None of that would matter and would be moot though.

If it was done for past BF titles or they've counted other titles using something like this, it means even those past sales are in question.

Either way, its still a massive amount of people buying it, playing it, trying it even after that beta regardless of how you want to look at that.

winjer winjer probably a good amount, i mean look at how many who disliked BFV, yet bought BF 2042....

We'll see a lot of the same ones next BF, will pre-order, ignore all warnings and then be like "woooooow how did they get us"? lol

I like the game so I've never felt cheated or suckered out of any BF and generally get my money's worth, even from BF titles I played less of.

So trust, you'll see them title it Bad Company 3 and many will buy even with many warnings about a beta being bad and many issues up front being shown and shit. Seriously read the comments of people saying they'll buy it if they remake BF4, they'll buy it if they make Bad Company 3. They don't even factor the "they" part of that. If the team has issues, if they hate 2042 or hate the publisher or something like that, gamers seem to rarely factor any of that shit, they just think it being CALLED BF4 REMAKE or Bad Company 3 is enough and will jump right in, zero context into development issues, publisher issues etc. Its why you see some calling for BF4 remake, look at it like this....would you ask Konami for a Metal Gear Solid remake or for the IP to be sold to a better publisher? This is a situation where its not even WHAT BF they make, its the design, publisher, team and so much more.
 
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winjer

Gold Member
But keeping gamers playing is very important for a game like this.
Previous BF's continued to sell copies after launch. And most importantly, kept selling DLCs, Premium pass and Shortcuts.
BF 2042 is no longer selling significant numbers. And it's population is so low, that it won't sell significant numbers of DLCs, Season passes or micro-transactions.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
None of that would matter and would be moot though.

If it was done for past BF titles or they've counted other titles using something like this, it means even those past sales are in question.

Either way, its still a massive amount of people buying it, playing it, trying it even after that beta regardless of how you want to look at that.

Except there not because of one key diffrence


Confirmation during an investor call.


Refused to confirm sale numbers during an investor call.

All other titles have had EA confirm the sales numbers to investors, the only confirmation of supposed 2042 sales is from Tom Henderson, who now says that they could be off due to how its unique players and not confirmed purchases, its like saying sales are based on gamepass downloads.
 
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EDMIX

Member
Except there not because of one key diffrence


Confirmation during an investor call.


Refused to confirm sale numbers during an investor call.

All other titles have had EA confirm the sales numbers to investors, the only confirmation of supposed 2042 sales is from Tom Henderson, who now says that they could be incredibly off, its like saying sales are based on gamepass numbers.

Yet the person you cited before doesn't show BF3 selling 5 million in 1 week.

Sooooo its hard to take anything they said seriously then lol

I mean, you are telling me the only confirmation is from Tom, yet his numbers are wrong based on the link you JUST gave lol The fuck?

So he made a mistake about the numbers quoted...you've just shown yet another mistake.......sooooo sorta getting hard to believe a lot of what is being stated about any of that data then. I'd say this matters even less now then prior as you've just shown even that person seems to have wrong numbers or something.

But keeping gamers playing is very important for a game like this.
Previous BF's continued to sell copies after launch. And most importantly, kept selling DLCs, Premium pass and Shortcuts.
BF 2042 is no longer selling significant numbers. And it's population is so low, that it won't sell significant numbers of DLCs, Season passes or micro-transactions.

Will be even harder next time around.

People are already used to all those free maps. To charge 70, no single player, off the heels of 2042 only to then charge for some season pass locking in passes or something will be even harder to pull off.

I don't see Free To Play turning this around, I don't even see the redesign turning such a thing around as even someone who still plays it, I'd still be playing it regardless, everyone else isn't going to wait for that, they'll move on to other MP titles as that genre moves so fast.

Respect to them trying to redesign it for those they wronged, but I don't see it turning that ship around or even making it free as the game still needs to have popular design to work for free, 2042's price was never the issue imho, it was the main design itself.

I still feel a MP only title is the way to go. All Free Maps and 128 players, everything else needs to be back to traditional concepts.
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
Yet the person you cited before doesn't show BF3 selling 5 million in 1 week.

Sooooo its hard to take anything they said seriously then lol

I mean, you are telling me the only confirmation is from Tom, yet his numbers are wrong based on the link you JUST gave lol The fuck?

So he made a mistake about the numbers quoted...you've just shown yet another mistake.......sooooo sorta getting hard to believe a lot of what is being stated about any of that data then. I'd say this matters even less now then prior as you've just shown even that person seems to have wrong numbers or something.

So essentially yes the only numbers supplied for 2042 are based on an insider who has singlehandedly perpetrated the BF2042 is the second best selling title of the franchise, EA have never confirmed this. He later admits the numbers he gave are not accurate because they where never based on sales and goes against EA prior own investment announcement numbers for other titles, I think that can call the high number provided into question.

Essentially no one outside EA knows how well 2042 sold, we can assume being a AAA release based on a popular brand name it sold a few million, the install base is there to make that happen. However past those assumptions the only thing we know for sure is trackable player counts like Steam, and other less specific methods like xbox's "most played" lists. Both of which is poor.

EA needs to step up its game with the next entry, because it looks to me like this GaaS experiment is dead.
 

EDMIX

Member
So essentially yes the only numbers supplied for 2042 are based on an insider who has singlehandedly perpetrated the BF2042 is the second best selling title of the franchise, EA have never confirmed this. He later admits the numbers he gave are not accurate because they where never based on sales and goes against EA prior own investment announcement numbers for other titles, I think that can call the high number provided into question.

Essentially no one outside EA knows how well 2042 sold, we can assume being a AAA release based on a popular brand name it sold a few million, the install base is there to make that happen. However past those assumptions the only thing we know for sure is trackable player counts like Steam, and other less specific methods like xbox's "most played" lists. Both of which is poor.

EA needs to step up its game with the next entry, because it looks to me like this GaaS experiment is dead.

The rest of that data also questions how they've been counting units sold for years then, but I digress.

Yea I don't think the whole GaaS is dead by any means, but I do believe that EA needs to step up much more then they've already have.

I don't mind them trying a redesign or DICE rumored no longer doing a Star Wars title to just focus on BF or even them having teams doing MP only that do that and SP only that do that etc, simply that needs to be done throughout now. Even what they are doing with Dead Space being next gen only, maybe EA needs to start just enforcing that concept way more.

If they are going to redesign maps, clearly the whole hero shooter is just as much now into question, if they are going to not even make a BR....this is enough to show those ideas simply don't work with the BF install base and a 100% traditional concept needs to be done going forward, they can't afford any half measures.
 
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