Battlefield 6is topping Steam’s top-seller chart, surpassing even free-to-play titles such as Valve’s ownCounter-Strike 2. It’s undeniable that DICE’s shooter looks promising, especially compared to previous games in the series, but let’s not pretend likeBF2042never happened.
As EA slowly but surely wraps up development onBattlefield 6, which is slated to release on Oct. 10 this year, players have been going hand over fist to pre-order it. It thus earned the title a top spot on Steam’s top-sellers list, above free-to-play titles, even, which you’d expect are getting the most players to click on and download them. It’s unsurprising, honestly, given how promisingBF6looks, what with all the awesome Michael Bay-style trailers and chaotic multiplayer.
But it also shows us that players seem to have forgotten about2042. It also had a pretty successful beta, with a lot of marketing and drive behind it. It was going to be the next best thing in the franchise, stepping everything up a notch. Hundred-player lobbies, natural disasters, epic scale, etc. All of which are things being promised to us now, save for minor retractions like the removal of heroes and return of classes.
Now, I’m not sayingBF6looks even remotely as bad as2042, but I would advise caution. We’ve been burned not once, not twice, but countless times by the AAA industry giving us flashy eye candy to swallow up and be bewildered by, leading us into pre-order temptation. I have personally fallen for the bait, and don’t plan to do it again.
Pre-ordering a game in a franchise that hasn’t had a stellar release in an entire decade is bad enough; doing it en masse enables EA to continue providing us with half-baked, haphazard, semifinished content, no matter how flashy and “polished” it might look.
For what it’s worth,BF6could end up being the best game of all time, but it’s EA that has long ago lost its status as a top-level, trustworthy studio, especially when it comes to its handling of theBattlefieldseries.
