DICE has a history of rocky launches. Battlefield 4 stumbled out of the blocks in 2013 before months of updates got it on its feet, while the microtransactions present in Star Wars Battlefront 2 upon its launch in 2017 saw it draw criticism from all quarters. Battlefield 2042 continued the unwelcome trend, launching with key features missing, extensive bugs and controversial additions such as hero ‘Specialist’ characters, attracting overwhelmingly negative reviews from players on Steam.
Things have improved but it’s taken time, as well as one of the most radical overhauls the series has seen behind the scenes. Last December EA announced an all-star management team was being put in place to help get Battlefield back on track, with Vince Zampella bringing his expertise from overseeing the likes of Call of Duty and more recently Respawn’s Apex Legends to manage the franchise, while Halo veterans Marcus Lehto and Alex Seropian are also onboard – Lehto heading up a new studio in Seattle, while Seropian is working at Industrial Toys on Battlefield Mobile.
At DICE’s Stockholm headquarters there’s a new look team too, as series veteran Lars Gustavsson steps up to creative director while Rebecka Coutaz joins as general manager of EA DICE having previously served as studio director at Ubisoft Annecy. A handful of days after the launch of Battlefield 2042’s first season – which introduced new map Exposure, new specialist Lis and handful of new gadgets – Coutaz took some time to answer our questions about the team’s commitment to the title, and where it’s heading next.
Thanks for joining me, I really appreciate it as I know you must be incredibly busy – and I guess it’s been an interesting first six months on the job.
Rebecka Coutaz: Time flies! Well, it’s a great moment in time to join DICE, because as you might know this year is exceptional for us. We are celebrating 30 year as a studio, and 20 years on battlefields. So it’s a great moment to join. But you know the launch of Battlefield 2042 was a rocky launch. So it was also exciting for that! It’s been an exciting six months, I’ve got to know the team. I’ve spent a lot of time with our team members, I got to know the other studios that are working on the franchise such as Ripple Effect and the new Battlefield franchise team as well. So yeah, it’s been great
Rewinding back to kind of when you joined in December, what was the studio like when you joined it? Because I imagine it must be quite tough when launching a big game like this and then not getting the reception you might have hoped for.
Rebecka Coutaz: Everybody was disappointed – our community, our players and our team as well. It’s a team that has invested years of their lives into this game. And for that game not to live up to any expectations from the team or from the players, that was tough. We are moving forward and we’ve done a lot of things since then.