He also has an opinion on where the Battlefield series should go next.

It says a lot about the state of Battlefield 2042 that even EA, not exactly self-critical, said it hasn’t lived up to expectations – and that’s not even mentioning things like the petition signed by 155,000 players for a mass refund. It is, of course, a complex situation, and there is much more to it than the fact that the game did not live up to expectations – which, let us add, were far too hyped.

It’s at times like this that we need a voice of reason, and few people understand the series like Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2 lead designer David Goldfarb, who took to Twitter to ask some serious questions about the game’s development process.

“Really trying to understand why some of these design calls were made,” Goldfarb wrote.

“Why are there no smaller infantry maps? Why was 128 player count a thing that didn’t seemingly have any accommodation for infantry? Why are whole maps shipping without any detail art? Was no one in control of quality over there? Who thought this experience honored the BF sandbox experience and took it forward?”

Finally, he said, “I’m astonished that there were this many missteps even knowing the obstacles from higher up.”

That’s a pretty damning statement from one of the key men behind two of the most popular Battlefield episodes, although he did admit that he’s happy that Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 have been revitalised in their own way through Portal mode, which many consider being the game’s redeeming feature.

It’s clear that Goldfarb, who also directed Payday 2, still cares about the series and shared some thoughts on how he thinks the series can move forward.

“The best thing for DICE’s next would be to make [Battlefield] 2143 and go forward in time and reclaim their mantle of combined arms badassery that they built their legacy on alongside a really unique IP they created… ultimately they need to be able to develop new IP to survive.”

So Goldfarb would like to see the series return to the (distant) future, which could be a very refreshing and revitalising change for a video game series that has grown a little tired.

Source: Twitter

Really trying to understand why some of these design calls were made. Why are there no smaller infantry maps? Why was 128 player count a thing that didnt seemingly have any accommodation for infantry? why are whole maps shipping without any detail art?

— David Goldfarb #BlackLivesMatter (@locust9) February 8, 2022