DICE Is Incompetent & Out of Touch (Battlefield 2042)

what's up everybody this is the act man here and today i wanted to talk about the state of dice 2042 ea and the battlefield franchise i'm making this video in place of a review i had planned where i would have you know played 2042 and seen how it improved since the god-awful beta i'll admit it's great that many of the outrageous game-breaking bugs and seizure inducing glitches have been fixed great news and there's even more good news because dice actually put in a real epilepsy warning mission accomplished good work games complete boys that's a wrap this is the first time i've ever encountered a situation like this in my time on youtube or as i've been preparing a video the game is so bad it is so laughably unfun and busted i refuse to review it i refuse to go through the process of gathering footage needed to actually produce a review like i always try to find some nugget of potential within even the worst games but after i played two matches it's like i'm done i'm done that's it science experiment over i'll take an f for this one look i understand i might be sounding a bit harsh throughout this video but guess what modern gaming is real it's here and it's coming to destroy your favorite franchises in truth it may have just killed battlefield for good i'd actually recorded a different version of this video a few days ago for a separate reason and then dice came out with their update on the state of 2042 and so let's let's break this down all right we'll get to the crux of why dice is incompetent and so out of touch you've waited patiently to hear from us on what we're doing to address the issues with battlefield 2042 that you have told us about and the direction you can expect to see us take in the months ahead the statement reminds me of one of my favorite quotes it is such a quiet thing to fall but far more terrible is to admit it it's very important the way dice phrases things because in the first sentence you can see their signature gas lighting technique on full display not once do they apologize for the atrocious state of the game or the issues present within it but rather they're addressing the issues that we told them about as in they didn't realize these were issues until the game released key features that are important to you they're not important to us they weren't made a priority prior to release we didn't care about them but you do you've told us that so okay we're gonna do what you're asking for it's because dice has a history of getting so far up their own ass that it is impossible for them to admit when their ideas are [ __ ] or when they're on the wrong path the most ironic part of this post and the problem rests with ea too is that they're willing to delay season one content but not delay the launch of the actual [ __ ] game itself it's just like oh oh now now you want to take your time and get it right now okay after you sold the game after it lost 90 percent of its player base on steam okay now now you want to make sure the features are up and running gotcha up until this point dice had been pretty much radio silent on the majority of player complaints and addressing them so it's no coincidence that this update comes roughly around the same time as ea having their quarterly conference calls with investors hmm so that ea can point to this statement and say hey buddy no need to worry about this uh you know battlefield game that's severely underperforming we're doing something about it geez hermes you seem awfully calm about this don't worry i have a plan i'm going to jump as you might already be aware 2042 is sitting at a lower average player count on steam than battlefield 1 and 5 which is truly outstanding to see a big ass triple a game collapse that quickly in just three short months like that is impressive it also makes no sense how ea wants us to be a live service game but where's the live service i mean there's been essentially like only minor bug fixes since release nothing substantial nothing new not a new map or weapons or anything like that only works when you have a good audience to start with and you continuously keep them involved but when you delay massive chunks of content months out in advance like till summer um who are you making this content for the like three percent people that are gonna be left what's the what's even the point then dice does not apologize and instead they say hey here are some in-game cosmetics who wants to rock cosmetics that signal to everyone else yeah i was an idiot who paid for the hundred dollar version of this game it's just like it's truly amazing to see how poorly this game has been handled how out of touch and incompetent dice are as a studio i honestly didn't expect it to be this terrible 2042 did not meet expectations one you don't say you don't say you don't say oh i bet you're gonna tell me grass is green too now originally the straw that broke the camel's back for me to make this video was in a blog post which i just saw the other day from their battlefield briefing update on november 23rd we also want to give you the assurance that we're carefully evaluating your desire to see legacy features return end of match scoreboard server browser and features like voice chat are big topics for us to cover all at once and we have plenty we want to say around them now i'll be angry with this statement in a moment but it just showed to me it illustrated perfectly just how out of touch dice is with their fans their customers their community the battlefield franchise and the game industry as a whole it is astonishing the level of incompetence that has been put on full display by dice and ea with 2042 and their employees reactions to genuinely fair criticism the removal of features like voice chat server browser and a scoreboard were all extremely poor decisions notice i said decisions because these features were cut intentionally that's right that's how out of touch they are but to go a step further and call them legacy features to imply that a [ __ ] scoreboard is an outdated relic of the past you don't you don't need that to imply these things are not essential and were never considered important at all during development [ __ ] you [ __ ] you dice holy [ __ ] that speaks volumes to me and if you go back to the other post i was talking about the bottom they say we are committed to and focused on ensuring battlefield 2042 lives up to our ambitions and your expectations it's a task we're dedicated to accomplishing you already failed at that it's gone the opportunity is gone you cannot recover i do not understand why this game was not delayed how you could ignore everything the battlefield community has been asking for in no uncertain terms i do not understand why removing classes in favor of specialists was ever an idea that was seriously considered i cannot comprehend why you continue to fight your audience when they criticize your games for not even being close to reasonable expectations i have no idea how so many bad decisions how so much poor management and incompetence could slip through the cracks when you have the largest number of people working on a battlefield title ever i cannot comprehend how you dice and ea have been in this position to release a new battlefield or battlefront title and you have only gotten worse at it i have no idea why 2042 exists in the way that it does you see dyson ea continue to display the same arrogance and contempt for their audience that made battlefront 2 and battlefield 5 such a [ __ ] show they have learned nothing you brought us here for nothing i won't take questions and our second guess is not to collect you master twig who's to blame you every decision you've made led us from bad to us you constantly brush aside community outrage and label it as oh your brutal expectations what's that you want to shoot a gun at someone and have it actually hit them you guys got brutal expectations man just tone it down [ __ ] you i'll say this right now whoever is running the personal relations departments with ea and dice fire them right the very first thing anybody who gets a job in the service industry learns don't fight the customer there is no reason to harass or berate the customers ideally you hope that most of your customers or audience are satisfied and happy with the product or service that you provide so that they will be willing to defend you against the more outrageous people who are just always mad about everything and that way like your community is overall healthy and it keeps other people in check you know if you provide a good or service that i like and enjoy i will give you what you like and enjoy which is money this is a transaction we are both happy at the end of it that's how it's supposed to work a 19 year old dude working minimum wage has a better concept of how to interact with customers than a multi-billion dollar corporation does just think about that for a moment when your fan base has to fight you tooth and nail begging for basic ass features to be implemented like a scoreboard i'm sorry but it's a lost cause at that point i don't care what you have planned for the future i'm out i've got to say i think this is a liability nightmare you don't have any claims that you can back up so i'm out you've lost already and the numbers reflect that the review scores reflect that the reviews that you uh cherry picked and cut out sections of basically false advertising those reviews reflect that the posts on the subreddit reflect that the tweets reflect that everything reflects to the singular concept idea that you [ __ ] up bad so just own it just own it it's why statements like these never get a positive reaction do you guys not have phones yeah you guys all have fun you don't want that to do that either you think you do but you don't fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity it's called xbox 360. this is only one example of how out of touch dice is with reality and it's through their decisions like the removal of a scoreboard to address toxicity it's through [ __ ] like that it brings only negative repercussions to player experience you're not removing toxicity by removing social features you're creating it in a different form if you want people to be less toxic about the game make a better game why are you so concerned with addressing toxicity that you remove basically every method players have to interact with each other in a team-based cooperative shooter no less it's like making it illegal for everyone to drive cars simply because car crashes happen no cross team chat or switching squads switching teams post-game lobbies you can't see other players stats or who the best squad is no server browser nothing you are gutting the game under the asinine pretense of making the gaming space healthier when all you've really done is made it much much worse you know and [ __ ] like the scoreboard and lack of social features it's all just there to manipulate players into convincing them that they're not as bad as they really are that's why call of duty stops showing you deaths on the scoreboard or why kills and assists have kind of combined into eliminations you don't want to feel bad if you suck do ya listen these are m rated games i can handle it if my kd isn't perfect okay i'd rather see it and know how i'm playing than not at all i'm not going to list every feature that was cut or all the ways that 2040 do has been downgraded from its predecessors because we'd be here for the next five hours my point is i don't get how such an experienced studio could ever come to the conclusion that removing a scoreboard is a good call is the right decision to make like am i not mistaken are there not some measures put in place to avoid this exact type of catastrophe aren't there like checks and balances don't you have focus groups there's [ __ ] something to gauge people's interest in your current ideas and i know that 2042 was through some development hell but putting that aside the battlefield fanbase could not be any more clear about what it is they want battlefield 4.5 essentially even i know that battlefield 4 again the fundamentals of that game with the movement of battlefield v and maybe the atmosphere and immersion of one do you guys not do focus group tests do not communicate at all with the community with like battlefield youtubers or streamers or people that are huge fans do you not gauge what your audience is actually interested in what they buy battlefield for i guarantee if you held multiple focus group tests and told them what you were pre-planning years ago you would have caught all of this [ __ ] you would have realized what a bad idea it was you would have seen near universal agreement no this is not the game we want but instead you've pursued everything that battlefield was never meant to be hazard zones specialists the big ass maps are flat and uninteresting the confusion the lack of a scoreboard causes the importance of a server browser squad size hazard zone and everything else it just astounds me the level of incompetence that allowed so many blunders to make it to launch night greed is what pushes products out before they are ready satisfying investors can rob the creativity process and what you're left with is a game that has no direction but you know like halo infinite has proven that certain franchises don't need to chase other trends they don't have to pretend to be something they're not in order to be successful and to be loved battlefield is another franchise in that lucky position of having an established audience and a familiar core gameplay loop that is so captivating to millions of people you already have the label battlefield is the trend that other games are supposed to copy not the other way around it's because dyson ea wanted to continue chasing the battle royale trend and the specialist trends for more money from a larger audience that the game has completely backfired on them like call of duty is the one supposed to be copying battlefield battlefield is not supposed to be copying call of duty overwatch in rainbow six siege you know what i mean if you create the type of product catered to your core audience and deliver it to even just moderate expectations then chances are they will sell the game for you people will hear stuff from their buddies like yo dude have you have you played the new battlefield 2042 oh man it's like the glory days of four this is the best time to start getting into the battlefield games this is the perfect opportunity and then they start playing the game with their buddies because guess what it's a squad based shooter and that's how you get more people to buy it that's happened to me countless times call of duty can survive based solely on the fact that the majority of its audience genuinely doesn't give a [ __ ] how bad the games are or how boring and repetitive they are same thing with madden in all those sports games battlefield comes out every three or so years and they're a much more mature fan base i would say that's my point dice and ea seemingly lost all ability to understand the consumer's desires and what they're more likely to spend money on this is why they get so flustered and publicly flame and gaslight their fans when the inevitably blows up in their face remember when they said battlefield 2042 was way ahead of schedule yeah you're a liar you're a liar you know something that you're not telling us you slimy scumbag liar just like how cyberpunk was performing better than expected on last gen hardware you can't trust the [ __ ] thing these [ __ ] companies say now because they just lie to your face they lie to their publishers and the publishers then take those lies and lie to the investors it's [ __ ] sickening no road map no responses to major controversies a rotating game mode that you cut out in a game that severely lacks content one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies remember the titans attitude reflect leadership captain the state of dice and battlefield is in total disarray people are jumping ship from the franchise they're saying yep it's dead it's gone i'm never coming back and dice is doing as little as they possibly can to maintain the meager and dwindling audience that they have this game already failed it already flopped any updates that come afterwards are not going to get people back into it the game underneath is bad and you are fooled to pursue it this way i mean there's rumors of the game going free to play less than three months after they sold this for a hundred dollars every part of 2042 is being made fun of berated by the fans the specialists are cringy except for angel he gets a pass yeah angel does it again steam is offering full refunds even if you fall outside their usual policy the subreddit is completely overtaken by negativity and memes making fun of the game where dice's previous games were usually promising and competent enough to keep people invested and willing to wait 2042 is not it is not battlefront 2 or battlefield 5 it does not have potential the reason i'm so pissed off is because so many of us were genuinely excited for this and wanted to see it succeed after bf5 and battlefront 2. we just wanted to sail smoothly have a clean launch and just play a fun shooter but to see it and the battlefield franchise collapse like this is gut wrenching especially when even the smallest amount of common sense could have diverted the disastrous course this game took even the smallest bit of like hey is what we're doing good battlefield dice and ea have unequivocally mismanaged the production of this game in ways that cd projekt red can only dream of and to such a degree that it's time to reevaluate it's time to look back at every single decision you made and ask yourself how you could be so [ __ ] stupid to pursue that it's time to clean house to get rid of poor leadership it's time to get rid of those people who smell their own ass and think it smells good perhaps it is time to give battlefield to a developer that deserves it i want you guys to examine every decision that led you to this predicament and learn from it for [ __ ] sake learn to communicate with your audience and let go of your ego or keep messing up and give us all a new game to make fun of you know cyberpunk was still a great running joke but now we got 2042 so modern gaming is hot as [ __ ] dude dice nea do not deserve you as a player they do not deserve your money and this game does not deserve a review and i'll leave you guys with a final quote a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush thank you all for watching hope you enjoyed the video leave a like if you did and subscribe to the act man for more awesome content alright everyone that's all i got for today this is the act man signing out peace [Music]

Channel: The Act Man

Views: 2,143,427

Keywords: battlefield 2042, battlefield 2042 news, act man, actman, the act man, act man battlefield, act man 2042, 2042 act man, DICE, 2042 sucks, EA, electronic arts, 2042 review, battlefield 2042 review, battlefield 1, battlefield 2042 rant, battlefield 1 gameplay, 2042 gameplay, 2042 glitches, 2042 bugs

Id: 1D0Bgr72uA8

Length: 20min 57sec (1257 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 15 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/rafyenrique]

I needed this

[u/[deleted]]

Yup. Hes right. His point with the whole "in no other service are you allowed to argue with your customer".

It's definitely odd that they can get away with that. I think we've all worked jobs where we had to take feedback or sometimes rudeness and were required to reaffirm or make the best out of the situation with a customer.

These guys? They can call us toxic and hateful for having to deal with a disappointing product.

[u/joeghurt1]

He really sums the communication between the community and Dice well. They are actively fighting against the customers which really shows how f'ing out of touch they really are. I wouldn't hire these people to work at Mc Donalds. No offence to Mc Donalds employees.

[u/WVgolf]

Awesome video

[u/Salamandro]

"The game is so bad, I refuse to invest the time necessary to put together a review."

lmao

[u/AveryLazyCovfefe]

I remember when this guy said the beta was trash and judging from that the game had no time or room for improvement. He got plenty of flack for it on Twitter and YouTube, he kept his ground and look how it turned out, he warned many and they still ignored him.

Glad I listened to him and didn't pre-order it.

Angry Joe has a longer take on this, probably one of his longest ever coming in over an hour, ofcourse it is way more critical and quite angry over Act Man's

[u/[deleted]]

It really hit hard when he said EA and Dice don't deserve us as customers. They really don't if the last 5 years says anything about how they've treated their customers in the past. I don't care how many more Star Wars games they come out with, anything with EA, Dice, or any of their affiliates on the label, I'm not buying it.

[u/RaiausderDose]

He is absolutely fucking right.

I wish DICE employees had to watch this video every day till they accept that they fucked up and are totally out of touch.

[u/Volkor_Destory_Knees]

Nailed it. Every single thing he said was on point