Battlefield 6: A Beacon of Hope in a Bleak Gaming Universe

It's a tumultuous time in the gaming industry, but Battlefield 6 is nearly here to keep hope alive for gamers everywhere

After many years of being one of America's most hated companies, EA is primed to show the world that miracles do happen; even a company that makes as many poor or consumer-unfriendly decisions as EA can get something right now and again.

The last few years have seen several other major videogame companies challenge EA for their throne of the most hated company in the industry, and surprisingly, even before Battlefield 6 beta set the gaming world on fire, a few companies even managed to outdo EA when it comes to fan-unfriendly decisions and disappointing releases.

Thanks to supreme efforts by Ubisoft and most recently Microsoft, EA can rest easy knowing they're no longer the most hated company in America.

That may be more of an indicator of the industry as a whole right now moreso than EA really turning themselves around, but for all the EA executives out there, a win is a win.

There are of course plenty of great games out there for gamers of all stripes, but it's hard not to feel a certain disdain for the videogame industry in general nowadays - it seems most of the major publishers devote more time to nickel-and-diming their loyal customers, trying to take advantage of FOMO and other ways to manipulate people into constantly shelling out extra cash, churning out bug-filled or incomplete products that are only fixed months after launch (if ever), and ruining beloved franchises by chasing trends or injecting insidious monetization schemes into them.

Thanks to how much money videogames generate nowadays, greed has continued to plague an industry once dominated by extremely passionate visionaries and geeks. Short-sighted executives, often with little knowledge of the games they are in charge of, increasingly pull the strings and never seem to suffer the consequences of their incompetence while those that are forced to cater to them live in constant fear of layoffs or being replaced by AI.

Even successful studios delivering excellent, highly-rated and profitable products can't escape the soulless wrath of today's executives - just look at Microsoft, which recently posted record profits (they made a whopping $27 billion in profit last quarter), who proceeded to lay off thousands of employees across the company and believes they can replace most of them with AI.

If you've tried to use Microsoft's support chat bot recently for any kind of issue, you can see how absolutely retarded and premature that is.

It's not just unchecked greed that has run rampant on the gaming industry, it's also laziness, primarily driven by the same executives. Cutting corners, prioritizing getting something out the door rather than creating a polished, complete experience has become the norm, made all the more frustrating when those same unfinished products try to manipulate gamers into paying more money for something that should have been included to start with.

These problems are unfortunately not confined to the videogame industry.

Short-sighted, incompetent executives that end up costing their company massive losses in the long run despite their unfettered dedication to chasing after money are a plague in modern business

Just look at Las Vegas.

Okay, it might not look like that, but it's certainly not what it used to be.

For the longest time, Vegas was a proper destination city that not only offered travellers plenty of value, but was a highly profitable operation for all involved (except perhaps degenerate gamblers, but hey, we can't all be winners).

As a tourist destination, it was understandably crippled during the COVID nonsense, yet when things opened back up, Las Vegas saw a massive influx of money, more so than they had before the so-called pandemic.

Instead of just reaping the rewards of surviving and stocking up on that newfound good fortune for a rainy day, the C-suites of virtually every casino and entertainment company in the city seemed to think that post-COVID surge could be sustained indefinitely, and they ought to take advantage.

Rather than recognizing the incredibly obvious fact that this surge was a temporary environmental factor and that things would return to "normal" sooner rather than later, these brilliant executives all decided to invest untold billions in all sorts of new projects, from more hotels and casinos to an F1 race track.

With all those expensive projects soon opening their doors, the unchecked greed resulted in rather predictable failure.

Even if the post-COVID boom had kept the same levels of tourists coming in, Vegas' overabundance of options resulted in far too many things vying for the same pool of dollars. Through their unified greed, they created far more supply than there was demand even at its height, let alone when numbers started to fall back to normal.

As a result, even the few companies that weren't so greedy are now struggling mightily. Now, the entire city has jacked up prices to unbelievable heights to try desperately to recoup their investments, let alone turn a profit. As tourists get turned off by the nickel-and-diming, fewer are willing to return, making the money pool everyone is fighting over even smaller, which brings us back to increased prices - it's a full-on doom loop that's been set off, and it's only going to stop when a lot of businesses go bankrupt.

A destination that was once famous for offering so much bang for your buck is now charging $15-20 for a single slice of pizza.

If executive stupidity can ruin even a sure-thing like Las Vegas, they can ruin anything, and videogames are certainly no exception.

Speaking of Las Vegas, most big videogame publishers now treat their games like a casino, looking to draw people in then suck every last cent out of them that they can - something that is especially concerning given many of these games are marketed and available to children and teenagers.

Some big publishers have even brought in psychologists in recent years to best figure out how to get their players "engaged", ie. addicted, in order to get as much money from them as possible.

This parasitic relationship with their own customers has led to a depressing landscape, where the minority of gamers who are willing to spend exorbitant fees in order to feed their dopamine cycles are catered to, while the rest are viewed as expendable.

Just look at Call of Duty in recent years - despite the majority of its userbase disliking the goofy character skins, childish emotes, and whacky gun skins that have invaded the multiplayer space of a once-realistic military shooter (which still attempts to be that in its campaign), Activision (which is now owned by Microsoft, though in this case Activision was doing this long before Microsoft came in so we can hardly fault them here) has continued churning out retarded cosmetics ad nauseum and their incoming title, despite them promising they'd "tone it down", looks like it won't be much different.

Unfortunately for publishers, this short-sighted approach has led to an extremely cutthroat consumer environment, particularly given current attention spans (or lack thereof) - new IPs with good ideas that are well funded and offer solid experiences can easily fall by the wayside for the simplest missteps, and if a game can't hook players on their first impression, gaining back those players becomes next to impossible, leading to massive flops.

That has been especially exacerbated by the publishers themselves in constantly putting out games that clearly aren't ready for prime time despite bloated development costs, and then expecting players to stay with them as it takes months (or even years) for the game that was promised to be delivered.

It used to be a very viable option when there were fewer alternatives vying for attention. Now? Not so much.

Ironically, Electronic Arts (and DICE, their developer for Battlefield) is one of the biggest offenders in that regard, especially with the Battlefield franchise, which has a notorious reputation for putting out entries that, while they are great games, are filled with bugs and instability at launch, taking months for the developers to iron out the kinks and deliver on their initial promise.

The franchise still managed great success over the years, but in the saturated market of modern gaming, even hardcore Battlefield fans had enough when they were presented with the disastrous launch of Battlefield 2042.

Not only were game-breaking bugs, server issues and visual hiccups rampant, but the lack of campaign left it without a soul and their attempt to chase the "hero shooter" trend made it feel as if it was a Battlefield game in name only (they would put back the class system and try to fix things eventually, but the damage was already done).

After much frustration, EA and DICE have finally listened, at least in this case.

EA invested heavily in righting the ship following their last misstep, and the proof is in the pudding.

Crucially, DICE performed far more play testing throughout development than in previous releases, and even in beta form this shone through.

The beta build still had several months of polish left to see before the game's full launch, yet the servers and the game itself held up remarkably well even as a reported 25-ish million players across three platforms flooded the beta tests.

Even when absolute chaos and destruction was taking place on screen, the game managed to chug along without missing a beat. The ability to maintain its frame rate regardless of how much action is unfolding is a feat few games can confidently say nowadays, and for one that can deliver as much pandemonium as Battlefield, it's quite an achievement.

Not only that, but its clear they set forth to create a truly high-quality product not just in how it looks and sounds, but also in being well-optimized - just look at its relatively small install size despite its huge maps and graphical fidelity, then compare it to Call of Duty's ridiculously oversized storage requirements.

Of course, it being EA, there's always a chance they somehow manage to screw things up for the actual launch this week, but not only have they delivered in spades with everything they've shown, they've been saying (mostly) all the right things along the way too - listening to fan feedback for once and actively seeking it out, putting out statements like the fact they will keep cosmetic items grounded to fit the game's aesthetic unlike some of its competitors, and even taking aim at Call of Duty's fondness for meaningless celebrity commercials with Battlefield 6's brilliant live-action spot.

Battlefield's multiplayer is certainly what keeps players returning, but the return of a campaign is a definite plus and can be a showcase for DICE's impressive engine to show off some ridiculous destruction and eye-melting visuals in addition to its clear aid in creating a proper atmosphere and identity for a title, something that was sorely lacking in Battlefield 2042.

Even years after launch when DICE had completed a ton of improvements to turn it into a decent game, returning to it recently to unlock some free stuff in Battlefield 6 really highlighted how "soulless" it felt, lacking any real identity, something that the beta for BF6 proved won't be an issue this time around.

Plus, like many multiplayer-focused titles, Battlefield 6 will feature "seasonal" content starting shortly after launch to keep players engaged, and the roadmap for season one looks rather impressive - three maps in as many months, plus new weapons and gear, and all for free.

If all of that wasn't enough, there's Portal, which was the lone bright spot in 2042.

It effectively added many of the maps (as well as some vehicles and weapons) from past Battlefield titles to be played in 2042 and let players customize settings to create new modes, and even create matches with AI bots to face off against (or to simply fill the ranks and be replaced when real humans joined the server), which DICE basically used as a way to say you could still play the game solo even without a proper campaign.

Battlefield 6's iteration of Portal is now effectively DICE's version of Halo's Forge, putting a fully featured level creator/editor into player's hands that even allows users to script events and create entirely new gameplay experiences in addition to making new maps to play the normal modes on.

Given the creative output and the bevy of awesome maps that have graced Halo players with its similar tools, Portal looks like it can really add some amazing content and constantly offer up new experiences for players to try out and get addicted to.

Time will tell if the rest of the experience is as polished as the gameplay presented in the beta was, but if it is, EA and DICE will have truly redeemed themselves and put Battlefield back on the map.

Everything indicates that EA is delivering on what gamers want from a major AAA release - a fully featured, content-rich experience right out of the box that has optimized and silky-smooth gameplay with a focus on letting players have fun rather than trying to come up with ways to shake them down for more money.

It's no surprise that Battlefield 6 is the big story of this fall as a result, but for all the executives that still haven't figured it out yet, just look at last year's breakout success - Space Marine 2.

Despite being made by a "AA" studio, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was a smashing success that captured the gaming world's attention and showed bigger studios how it's done. How? It delivered a polished, fully-featured, great-looking (and sounding) experience right out of the box, emphasized fun and didn't try to cram a political agenda into it, and provided tons of content at the start as well as a steady stream of additions at no extra charge without desperately hawking microtransactions at its players.

Space Marine 2 reaped the rewards and, so long as EA doesn't manage to royally fumble the ball in the final seconds, EA's new owners (and gamers) will too.