DICE Has No Plans To Make Non-Battlefield Games: ‘There Is No Time for Anything Else’

Battlefield 2042 developer EA DICE has no plans to make non-Battlefield games any time soon.

The developer is known for its first-person shooters, with Battlefield 2042 being its current flagship game. But DICE's vice president, Rebecka Coutaz, tells GameIndustry.biz that any projects not related to Battlefield are “totally” on the backburner.

“We are only focusing on Battlefield 2042,” said said. “There is no time for anything else and this is what we want to do. In three years, we want to be the first-person shooter powerhouse that DICE deserves to be, and that is what we're going for.”

Although DICE is best known for its Battlefield games, that does mean we won’t see another Mirror’s Edge or the like – at least anytime soon.

“I want the team to be really proud about Battlefield 2042,” she added. “That is what they are chasing and they have their heart and the passion there. We want to be really, really proud of DICE. We want DICE to be the number one spot for first-person shooter games in Europe, and one of the powerhouses in the world. It's a fabulous team. We're going to make magic together.”

Since DICE’s acquisition by EA in 2006, the studio has worked almost exclusively on FPS titles, including Battlefield, Medal of Honor, and Star Wars: Battlefront.

But Battlefield 2042 fell short of expectations, and the company has been left on the back foot since. After a disappointing launch, the studio recently removed 128-player Breakthrough, removing the once-championed feature in favor of a 64-player version. They also ended support for Hazard Zone just days later, and are no longer developing content for this game mode.

Despite this, Coutaz says they owe the Battlefield community and are focussed on turning it around.

“The launch of Battlefield 2042 was not as expected,” she said. “Our players and community were disappointed, but so was our development team. We have focused on the health of the game, and so bug after bug, patch after patch, we are fixing and improving it. And each patch we have a little, little win, and that is important for our team because they were disappointed. We're celebrating 30 years as a studio but also 20 years on Battlefield, and we have players who've been with us for 20 years and to disappoint them... it's really hard on us.”

The main focus, she claims, is the core gameplay experience… and the recent Season One seems to have gone down well.

“The players are enjoying our map and the content that we have provided, so it's a win for us and it makes us feel better,” she explained. “The team is here to make Battlefield, and they're passionate about Battlefield. We have many Battlefield veterans. So, it's important for us to improve Battlefield 2042 and the experience that we can provide to our players. We owe them that.”

Whether or not Battlefield 2042’s improvements will win over players remains to be seen. But one thing’s for certain – Battlefield will remain DICE’s focus for the time being.

Need some help jumping into Battlefield 2042? Check out our how-to guides as well as some tips and tricks to help you get started.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.