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[ToTTenTranz]

First of all, I'm aware that DICE doesn't make only games. Their Stockholm studio hires some 700+ people who also develop Frostbite that then goes on to be used on EA's sports games money printers. Though I don't know exactly how much of Frostbite's R&D is made by Frostbite and how much is made by SEED.

But if we check DICE's game releases for the past 4 years, we get:

- Battlefront "Surprise Mechanics" II
- Battlefield "Right Side of History" V
- Battlefield "COD Wannabe" 2042


I don't know about BFV, but I'm pretty sure Battlefront II failed to meet sales expectations according to their own earnings reports. Going by how fast BFV went on sales, I'm assuming it didn't fare too well either. And I can't see how BF2042 is ever going to meet their sales targets considering how terrible its reception is.

It just doesn't look like DICE is currently able to make successful games, so I wonder how/why EA hasn't given them the boot.
Westwood was booted after one terrible C&C4, Maxis was butchered after Sim City 2013 and turned into a smartphone game developer, Visceral got disbanded after the cancellation of project Star Wars Ragtag, etc. The list of EA's short temper on game studios is pretty long, so how come does DICE get to launch all these games and keep leading these expensive franchises?

Or am I just looking at it all wrong and their games are actually making a lot of money?

 

[Ammogeddon]

PapEA memes incoming……

 

[The Cockatrice]

Unlimited failures as long as idiots keep pre-ordering and buying the same products every time.

 

[Imtjnotu]

EA wondering who you talking too

 

[Concern]

Do you have sales numbers for Battlefield already? If so, please share.


The game is buggy and incomplete but if it keeps selling, its not exactly a "failure" yet. Is it?

 

[TheMan]

Do you have sales numbers for Battlefield already? If so, please share.


The game is buggy and incomplete but if it keeps selling, its not exactly a "failure" yet. Is it?

Good point. Also, how did BFV sell?

 

[Kuranghi]

The games would have to murder people families while they slept to cause a dip in sales, I think they're safe.

 

[HTK]

Folks that made DICE left DICE 3-4 years ago...

 

[MiguelItUp]

While DICE has been shuffled, EA surely makes calls to meet quotas, make money, etc. I don't think EA really cares about the quality of a product, rather than hitting numbers and deadlines.

So, while the failure could be on DICE, it's probably on EA as a whole for pushing said product to release.

 

[kyliethicc]

Profitable failures? Many, many more.

Unprofitable failures? Probably 1 or 2 more.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Idk man, I was kinda sold on this "sense of pride and accomplishment" thing...

 

[Varteras]

Yes.

 

[Putonahappyface]

Only when customers stop buying there products, then they will start to look for problems amongst their resources.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

EA will euthanize Dice the minute they become unprofitable. Until then, they will be allowed to live.

 

[OneShotThrill]

While DICE has been shuffled, EA surely makes calls to meet quotas, make money, etc. I don't think EA really cares about the quality of a product, rather than hitting numbers and deadlines.

So, while the failure could be on DICE, it's probably on EA as a whole for pushing said product to release.

All EA cares about...and with every title they realease.

 

[SlimySnake]

DICE is utterly awful. Everyone blames big bad EA for everything, but DICE was given 3 years and five studios to work on this game and they shipped this disaster. They are completely inept.

Whats shocking is that after the success of BF1 which finally helped them sell 20 million almost matching cod, they threw all that away and went back to making battlefield for the more hardcore fanbase while also pissing them off with the addition of prosthetic arms weilding female soldiers. Attrition + mechanical arms is what makes world war 2 so authentic.

When the Battlefront 2 lootbox scenario first broke, some reporters pointed out how this wasnt an EA mandate. It was DICE who designed the game that way. I think DICE has to go. I will never forgive them for what they did to operations. People loved that mode. They themselves said that it was the their most popular mode in BF1. They first removed the 40 player playlist which was far more balanced and replaced it with only a 64 player playlist which turned every game into a clusterfuck. Then they used that as an excuse to completely change it in BFV in order to 'balance' it turning it into a boring snoozefest like conquest.

They are a bunch of idiots. Shut them down.

P.S I knew they were idiots when in BF1 they were asked by the community to fix the grenade spam. Their solution: making grenades replenish automatically. Yes, their solution to fix grenade spam was to give players more grenades. I wish i was making this up.

 

[Soodanim]

If you ever find yourself asking a question like this, refer back to the following list:

1. Opinions aren't counted as an expense on the Statement of Profit or Loss

 

[GymWolf]

The game probably still sell like hot cakes, dice is safe for now.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Yeah DICE has been fucking up since BF4, which they postponed DLC because they had to complete the game first. BF1 I can't remember much about except it bored me to tears after a few weeks, but it was succesful and surprising. BFV and 2042 are shit. Don't forget Battlefront.

I'm kinda done with DICE. This is another fuck up they made, they're on a shit streak.

 

[Black_Stride]

P.S Battlefront 2 was a brilliant game.

 

[Gp1]

I'm pretty sure Battlefront II failed to meet sales expectations according to their own earnings reports.

Initially.

They "recovered" the game after some time. I believe that both Battlefront combined sold almost 35mi copies. BF5, however, sold less than 10...

 

[R6Rider]

2042 is doing better than Halo Infinite on Steam, and that game is free.

They are fine, despite the bandwagon of "Battlefield is failure!".

 

[A.Romero]

Why destroy a studio if you can just change leadership? When a soccer team doesn't win any championships for a while you don't eliminate it, just change management and some key players.

Also, If I understand correctly BF has been in the most played games recently. They need the content for their subs. The business has changed.

 

[MiguelItUp]

All EA cares about...and with every title they realease.

Well, to some degree, yeah. But not EVERY release. I say that because some are most certainly worse than others.

 

[ANDS]

Pretty pointless discussion without sales numbers bolstering it. Critical failures are not commercial failures necessarily and we know which developers care about (unless you're using it to contract out to a third party and base performance bonuses on such). BF2042 might be getting savaged by SOME players on STEAM, it still is managing 50-60K players on PC alone; goodness knows what the numbers are on console where no such rating is attached to a game purchase.

. . .as for BF2, there are sales numbers for that game. It did not tank.

 

[chixdiggit]

2042 is doing better than Halo Infinite on Steam, and that game is free.

They are fine, despite the bandwagon of "Battlefield is failure!".

Not true at all.
According to Steam:
Halo has a peak today of 169,816 and Battlefield 2042 only 60,640.
Not to mention that many PC players are playing Halo on GP.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Do you have sales numbers for Battlefield already? If so, please share.


The game is buggy and incomplete but if it keeps selling, its not exactly a "failure" yet. Is it?

Battlefield 2: 7 million sales during the launch period, and well below EA's estimates. It also failed to bring revenue expectations due to the microtransactions bring closed for that period.
BFV: 7.3 million after 1 year, also failing to meet expectations by 1 million copies.


BF 2042 lost around half of its player base within the last 48 hours. I doubt the sales are getting traction considering the reviews and word-of-mouth / anecdotal experiences. Concurrent players have been pretty good indicator of sales numbers, at least for games of this scale.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Over 9000.

 

[SantaC]

Folks that made DICE left DICE 3-4 years ago...

Yes they are infact Embark Studios.

Embark Studios

Stockholm-based games studio, on a mission to blur the line between playing and making

www.embark-studios.com

I am baffled how many that have no idea of this.

 

[R6Rider]

Not true at all.
According to Steam:
Halo has a peak today of 169,816 and Battlefield 2042 only 60,640.
Not to mention that many PC players are playing Halo on GP.

Current Players has Battlefield above Halo: Infinite. That's with Halo being free, getting good reviews and not counting all the players playing on Origin instead of Steam.

So correct for current players, incorrect for peak players.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Battlefront 1&2 still offers tons of fun, there’s a little bit of Arcady feel to it, playing as a Jedi or Sith is guaranteed fun. The franchise needs a third game, and the Battlefield franchise needs time not hate.

 

[Airbus Jr]

Remember when people praises this game lack of single player mode back then when it was announced

Online only its gona be great they say

 

[whyman]

Dice really messed up with the latest BF. Imagine being so incompetent at your job that you just ignore fans wishes like a scoreboard before release. Insane.

 

[SantaC]

First of all, I'm aware that DICE doesn't make only games. Their Stockholm studio hires some 700+ people who also develop Frostbite that then goes on to be used on EA's sports games money printers. Though I don't know exactly how much of Frostbite's R&D is made by Frostbite and how much is made by SEED.

But if we check DICE's game releases for the past 4 years, we get:

- Battlefront "Surprise Mechanics" II
- Battlefield "Right Side of History" V
- Battlefield "COD Wannabe" 2042


I don't know about BFV, but I'm pretty sure Battlefront II failed to meet sales expectations according to their own earnings reports. Going by how fast BFV went on sales, I'm assuming it didn't fare too well either. And I can't see how BF2042 is ever going to meet their sales targets considering how terrible its reception is.

It just doesn't look like DICE is currently able to make successful games, so I wonder how/why EA hasn't given them the boot.
Westwood was booted after one terrible C&C4, Maxis was butchered after Sim City 2013 and turned into a smartphone game developer, Visceral got disbanded after the cancellation of project Star Wars Ragtag, etc. The list of EA's short temper on game studios is pretty long, so how come does DICE get to launch all these games and keep leading these expensive franchises?

Or am I just looking at it all wrong and their games are actually making a lot of money?

Since OP is ragging on DICE, same logic can be applied on Bioware. They are on the same shitstreak and their games dont even sell anymore.

 

[chixdiggit]

Current Players has Battlefield above Halo: Infinite. That's with Halo being free, getting good reviews and not counting all the players playing on Origin instead of Steam.

So correct for current players, incorrect for peak players.

Sorry but False.
Where are you getting these numbers from? Where does it show that Battlefield is doing better than Halo on Steam? Are you saying Steam is showing the wrong numbers? Why would they lie?

 

[R6Rider]

Sorry but False.
Where are you getting these numbers from? Where does it show that Battlefield is doing better than Halo on Steam? Are you saying Steam is showing the wrong numbers? Why would they lie?

I was looking at the steamcharts page. Can't view actual Steam page, so it could be incorrect.

 

[Kacho]

Hard to say with limited data to reference. On Steam the game seems to be selling well enough but the low concurrent player count does not bode well. If sales drop off a cliff EA will no doubt have serious discussions about the future of the studio.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Since OP is ragging on DICE, same logic can be applied on Bioware. They are on the same shitstreak and their games dont even sell anymore.

Bioware Montreal was basically shut down after Mass Effect Andromeda, and since they announced they were cancelling Anthem 2.0 they lost 150 senior developers (maybe more at this point).

We've certainly seen a bunch of consequences to Bioware's failures, but I can't find any on DICE.

 

[chixdiggit]

I was looking at the steamcharts page. Can't view actual Steam page, so it could be incorrect.

Ok but that doesn't support your argument either?

 

[SantaC]

Bioware Montreal was basically shut down after Mass Effect Andromeda, and since they announced they were cancelling Anthem 2.0 they lost 150 senior developers (maybe more at this point).

We've certainly seen a bunch of consequences to Bioware's failures, but I can't find any on DICE.

This game was basically made from sitting at home working. People were allowed back into the office in september in sweden, meaning that 1.5 years of the development have been from home.

People were ordered to work from home @ march 2020 and back @ september 2021

 

[R6Rider]

Ok but that doesn't support your argument either?

It was BF right above Halo a little bit ago. The site recently updated to what you're showing now.

Besides that, the point wasn't that BF is beating Halo (at the time). It was that It's not doing much worse despite it being full priced AND having Mostly Negative reviews.

 

[chixdiggit]

Besides that, the point wasn't that BF is beating Halo (at the time). It was that It's not doing much worse despite it being full priced AND having Mostly Negative reviews.

Yeah I actually agree with you on that. The fact that it has mostly negative reviews and is still somehow one of the top selling games on Steam right now is pretty odd.
The reviews on Steam also don't really show Battlefield justice as it's only a thumbs up or a thumbs down system. There is plenty of reasons to not recommend BF 2042 in it's current state but doesn't mean you still can't have fun with it.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

They might be kept around for their tech but games who knows.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

This game was basically made from sitting at home working. People were allowed back into the office in september in sweden, meaning that 1.5 years of the development have been from home.

And many other games from other developers also released this year - most of them also released under home working laws - without the sheer scale of problems found on BF2042.
Plus, many of the problems found on 2042 stem from gameplay and UI decisions made by DICE's own leadership.

I don't think the covid excuse is going to hold here. Not to mention the fact that it didn't affect DICE's two earlier releases.

 

[SantaC]

And many other games from other developers also released this year - most of them also released under home working laws - without the sheer scale of problems found on BF2042.
Plus, many of the problems found on 2042 stem from gameplay and UI decisions made by DICE's own leadership.

I don't think the covid excuse is going to hold here. Not to mention the fact that it didn't affect DICE's two earlier releases.

BF1 was good, not sure what you meant with two earlier releases. Battlefront 2 is also seen as good.

 

[lostinblue]

I don't know about BFV, but I'm pretty sure Battlefront II failed to meet sales expectations

Actual sales expectations are not the whole story these days, Call of Duty SKU sales (digital/physical) peaked in 2010/2011 with Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3. The new game Vanguard sales are down compared to last years Black Ops Cold War.

Despite that, due to DLC, Season Passes and microtransactions, the franchise has more revenue that it did 10 years ago.

Which is why so many developers are so willingly shooting themselves in the feet to please their parent companies or earn bonuses. Short sighted? sure, but that bubble hasn't burst yet.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

I haven't played battlefield since 4. What what the big deal with V?

 

[ToTTenTranz]

BF1 was good, not sure what you meant with two earlier releases. Battlefront 2 is also seen as good.

BFV and Battlefront 2.

BFront2 became a good game after 2 years of support and updates for free, but I doubt its post-release period sales made the development profitable.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Let's hope IKEA is hiring.

 

[R6Rider]

Let's hope IKEA is hiring.