This is pretty unbelievable. There is NO WAY the same amount of devs are working on this title. It is physically impossible just based on the volume of previous updates.
Check out the update history:
- Update 1 (NOV 18th) 11 updates/fixes
- Update 2 (NOV 25th) - 4 workdays to code/test/deploy13 updates/fixes
- Update 3 (DEC 2nd) - 4 workdays to code/test/deploy 330 updates/fixes 🥳
- Update 3.1 (DEC 9th) - 4 workdays to code/test/deploy 37 updates/fixes
There were weekly updates before they broke for the holidays. Then something happened.
- DEC 31st - closes out the quarter for EA earnings (BF2042 is $100M+ below projections)
I am sure they were told to pull everyone off this title once they got back from holidays because you don't go from weekly updates to this with 3-4x the amount of development time:
- Update 3.2 (JAN 20th) - 13-18 workdays to code/test/deploy 22 updates/fixes (this is at most 2-3 devs)
After that patch, most players were saying WTF. Now with a skeleton crew, there was no way they were going to complete a Seasonal drop in less than 60 days. So we get this:
FEB 1st:
"We’ve had to make some big decisions to ensure that our next set of updates can be focused on delivering these improvements, with the most substantial one being to move the release date of our first Season to early Summer. This decision gives us the time to focus on improving the Battlefield 2042 experience while finalizing the development of our seasonal content to ensure that it all reaches our standard for quality."
Wait what? More time? For what exactly? Finalize development of seasonal content? It's not complete? Holy crap!
So then the poor skeleton crew is left to work on the laundry list of growing bugs and after 6+ weeks of hard work from the 2 junior developers left, we get this:
- Update 3.3 (MAR 8th) - 32 workdays to code/test/deploy 9 updates/fixes (2 in Hazard Zone) (this is at most 2 devs?)
Are you kidding me? So technically, there have been 31 updates/fixes to this title in the last 45-50 workdays and somehow they want to make us believe they care about this title, the community, and their customers? The last update before the holidays had 37 in 4 days, LMAO.
Just say the scoreboard took a month (the last 20 workdays), they still had 12 workdays to address the 8 other fixes they implemented. So you are telling me there are more than 2-3 devs left actively working on this project? Come on.
They now have the next patch planned for early April (will probably slip a week) so they will have another 25+ workdays in between. Again, based on the last two patches, we are looking at maybe 15-20 updates/fixes with VOIP being the highlight. We already know we won't have a Server Browser or Squad Management before Season 1 now. That means it will be at least 7 months after launch before we potentially see either of those implemented. With the skeleton crew, I bet we never see those. After this next patch, they will have to shift to S1 deployment prep and won't have time for updates like that.
They made a business decision after the quarter ending December 31st and have not shifted from that since and I don't expect them to going forward. What a disappointment.