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| Example of Good Comms from Devs |
Battlefield 6 was running solid and providing awesome gaming fun after an initial patch to the new weapon mechanics was released shortly after launch to address a few problems with precision and recoil. The team even dropped welcomed new content with the "California Resistance" package and provided entertaining new challenges with cool rewards as part of the Red Bull Challenge event. This was all delivered with great success as part of the promised content drops for this season. Everything was great and people were raving online about this new version of Battlefield. Some folks were even saying, "Battlefield is Back!"
Then, on December 8th, they dropped the latest patches and some new content that had been promised. This new package was called "Winter Offensive."
Oh, my... everything felt like it had fallen apart and many people declared that DICE/EA had destroyed the game with so many new bugs and glitches. Some players found the new problems to have rendered the game unplayable. The menu system, for example, was so scrogged that you would most often need to exit and restart the entire game if you wished to get a new match going. Many fans also reported frame stuttering and other broken mechanics. Myself, I ran into "invisible hands" and a thermal scope that showed nothing but a big black circle.
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| Example of "Invisible Hands" Glitch |
People are rightly angry. But, I'm not so bothered by the surprises. I just find it hard to believe that the team decided to release this build. There seems to be no explanation for why they didn't know the menu was so badly broken. It wasn't an isolated or rare occurrence. It was not limited to a fringe set of players with "barely in spec" equipment. I can understand (maybe) that they missed some of the other bugs... maybe... but the menu issues are quite prominent and can't be missed.
It was a large download. Seems like probably every dev changed some code. I can't help but wonder if some coders had "great ideas" to improve their code and just checked it in without good reason. It would be interesting to know if the development team performs requirements tracking along with integration, regression, and robustness testing. Are the reports being reviewed? Are people feeling the heat in the office after this release? I wouldn't like to see anyone get into serious trouble, however. After all, everyone makes mistakes. Yet, clear communication of expectations and a process review seem due. The process is supposed to help catch the mistakes that will inevitably occur.
Did I mention that people are angry? Hah! The Battlefield internet is blowing up. Reddit folks are losing their minds.
It is understandably difficult to believe that AAA game devs would allow something like this to happen in 2025. In any case, I wish them the best and hope that the problems are easily remedied and we can all get back to having some fun on the Battlefield.
Take care and have fun out there!
--Pilchuck
