You gotta think economically. On paper, DICE/EA going to free live service updates was possibly going to shift the resources otherwise spent on paid expansion packs away, or more precisely have the supporting manpower dependant on revenue of digital content like other live service games. Unfortunately Battlefield V fucked up on basically the three most important fronts to sustain this; 1. paid content available at or close to launch, 2. paid content integrated seamlessly and appealingly, and 3. game stability and popularity to support investing in said paid content.
Instead what we got was;
- None of the microtransaction content at launch, instead arriving months later
- Seriously bugging game at launch, diverting resources to resolve issues, many of which remain in the game, some of which patched in and made worse
- Arguably low player retention and clumsy, uninspired storefront, both of which disincentivising microtransactions
DICE has spent most of their time trying to fix a game that clearly needed at least 12 more months in the cooker. EA/DICE have pushed for a microtransaction storefront and content supply that doesn't break the game, but isn't appealing or interesting and at best still clumsy to navigate. And this is all wrapped around a game that has potentially failed at player retention versus its predecessors, continues to present technical and design issues further diverting development manpower and costs, and continues to cultivate a mixed-to-negative reception amongst its audiences (of note here being the major streamers).
The fuckups are irreversible, and the damage has been done. Battlefield V will never be remembered as fondly as predecessors precisely because of its maddeningly messy first 12 months of existence. What does matter is the future, and how much of the current situation can be salvaged, when, and perhaps more importantly and concerning just how much effort and money EA/DICE wish to put in.
Consider all of the above, and the problem now is how many people continue to work on Battlefield V, in what capacity, with what content, and for how much longer? All the while EA/DICE are certainly taking this experience to the board room and restrategising for what they do next time, and whether resources should be taken away from Battlefield V's post launch support to assist with whatever is coming next.
If I had to hazard a guess, I suspect there will be a decently sizable content drop via the Pacific update, if not immediately then over that month's Tides of War. And by that I mean less drip fed than what we've got, and instead a good bulk of content; American and Japanese factions, new gear and vehicles for both, and an assortment of maps across various fronts. It'll be the closest we'll get, even if it's stretched out over a month, to a traditional update.
We'll get one last update towards the tail end of Battlefield V's life, being the Eastern Front. It'll be theoretically less substantial than the Pacific Front, as only the Soviets and their associated weapons/gear/vehicles will be added, with a lot of German content recycled alongside smaller additions.
And that'll be it. God knows how stable the game will be by then, what bugs will have finally been squashed, which will be added, what areas of the design have been overhauled, etc etc.
Invisibility bug is still in the game, by the way. Nowhere near as frequent or frustrating, but it's absolutely still there.Was shooting at a guy that was nothing but heads and arms today. Still seems like an issue related directly to the level of detail scaling on player models, and backend engine optimisation on how it handles this data.
