It is probably a battle between ongoing (server) costs, and development costs/future earnings (new BF).
Seems a little strange, since EA are obviously targeting current/past players with the new BF, as well as new players.
Customer loyalty is far more important in this era of video games, than it was say 10 years ago. Then, a company could disrespect the player base knowing that they would flock back to the next 'big thing'.
Not anymore. I will be interested to see how many current/past players pre-order or buy day 1. My guess - significantly fewer that any previous games.
Imho all players should have access at all times, and with the player base shrinking they really need to make it easier for all players to get into matches.
There is nothing worse than endlessly waiting for lobbies to reach the required number of players, only to see players give up in frustration.
I strongly believe we need one player starts, backfilled with AI in all game modes in both AOW and Official Portal Experiences.
You need to play an official experience mode to earn the ribbons in the week’s official game mode or to get weapon, specialist, gear or vehicle progression above Tier 3. Most of the official experience modes require 16 people minimum to start a game. But some of the official experience modes, typically Team Deathmatch and some of the other modes that are rotated each week (under the Portal menu, but not in Portal), used to have the minimum number of players required set to one. I have noticed in the last few weeks the minimum number of players required to start a game in these modes seems to have been increased to four.
Even before Season 7 ended, in the Australia / New Zealand region, it has been difficult to start any game mode that required more than one person minimum except for 64 Player Conquest and the Week’s Official Game Mode during the day. And of late, that has only been possible in the late afternoons and evenings. I have not been able to play any official modes of Conquest 128, Rush or Breakthrough for many months. With Battlefield 2042 almost three years old and not having any more seasons, the player base seems to be decreasing significantly. It is now almost impossible to start any official game mode during the day. It is not until the early evening that enough players are around to start an official experience game.
EA/Dice needs to reduce the minimum number of people required to start an official game mode to make it easier to get games started, not increase them. Maybe reset all the previous modes back to one, and the other modes if not also reduce them to one, at least reduce them to 4 or so. If they don’t, then what is left of the player base will rapidly disappear.
@Ringo_TB Ribbons earned in any official mode count towards the current weekly rewards, so it thankfully don't need to be earned in the featured modes. I do mine against bots in solo/coop because it's quicker, for example.
Just thought I'd mention it.
