I'm scared of what the next game might look like....
@Ironhead841Exactly this!
I'm a Battlefield veteran dating back to BF1942, and I've spent the majority of my gaming time in this franchise. I realize by now I'm an "old" man and not the target customer EA/Dice is looking for anymore. I'm not the guy willing to spend rl money on in-game cosmetics and stuff.
Although they try to blow smoke up our arses by letting us belief the Battlefield community feedback matters to them, it's sentences like this that proves they're not interested in the true Battlefield community at all:
"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."
New players that's where it's at for them, not the long standing BF community.
As said before, I have no illusion that I'm still the customer they are targeting. I used to be that guy that pre-ordered the game, and instantly bought a premium pass as I knew it would be value for money. However with BFV that started to change. The whole ramp up to that game where they were alienating themselves from the BF community made me sceptic enough to not pre-order the game anymore. I still bought it at launch though, but the whole live-service concept and the way they just abandoned the whole development without delivering to the tides of war promise (Eastern front, D-Day anyone?), made me lose my loyalty.
So me and my friends (also BF vets although not as long as me) did not buy BF2042 at launch as we had 0 confidence. And the whole launch disaster proved us right. Eventually we picked it up last summer when it was on sale for just €20,- somewhere. We started playing and have seen some improvement, however we have less fun than we used to. With that the dedication to play the game has faded. Partially also due to changing life priorities (work, kids etc.)
But with that I'd like to end with some food for thought for EA. I know corporate business well enough to understand that I'm not the type of gamer they would listen to anymore. However me and my friends all have kids now, meaning we are raising a new generation of gamers. Until they reach a certain age we have control over where their money is spent, and also some influence on what kind of gamers they evolve into. Don't underestimate the value of loyalty and goodwill, as these are values I try to teach my kids as well.
