Battlefield 2042 is using the 'Vince Zampella-slash-Respawn model' now, EA CEO says

pcgamer.com:

Electronic Arts said in its Q3 investors call back in February that the much-maligned military shooter Battlefield 2042 did not meet the company's expectations. CEO Andrew Wilson cited both technical problems and design choices as the reasons the game «did not resonate with everyone in our community,» although luckily for EA the ongoing success of games like Apex Legends and FIFA meant that Battlefield's relative failure would have little impact on the company's overall fortunes.

Despite all of that, Wilson said in today's Q4 call that EA isn't giving up on the game, or the series as a whole. «We take a long view here,» he said in response to a question about EA's relative silence on Battlefield 2042 over the past several weeks. «This is one of the great franchises in our industry, built by one of the great teams in our industry, and our expectation is that it will continue to grow and be a really important part of our portfolio for many many years to come.»

Wilson's optimism seems to stem largely from the involvement of Vince Zampella, the co-founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment, who was given overall creative control of the Battlefield series in December 2021. Battlefield developer EA DICE is also under new management: Studio general manager Oskar Gabrielson announced his departure on the same day that Zampella took the Battlefield reins; he was replaced by Rebecka Coutaz, formerly of Ubisoft Annecy.

«We've got incredible leadership over at that team now, they're rethinking the development process from the ground up, and really using kind of the Vince Zampella-slash-Respawn model of 'get to the fun as quickly as possible,» Wilson said. «They've been doing thousands of updates for the community, working on