Battlefield 4′s disastrous launch was well documented by the gaming press and gamers alike, and now eight months after it launched, EA boss Andrew Wilson has called it “unacceptable.”
In an interview with Eurogamer, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that Battlefield 4′s multiplayer issues were not a server problem, and added, “It was a client side problem. Right now the game is playing extremely well, and people are in there and having a lot of fun. I’m still playing it.”
Explaining what he felt did go wrong, Wilson continued, “Think about what Battlefield 4 was: 64 player multiplayer, giant maps, 1080p, Levolution that was changing the gameplay design in an emergent way. There is a chance there are things you are going to miss through the development cycle. And you end up in a situation we had with Battlefield 4.
“For me, the situation we had was unacceptable. For the team it was unacceptable. We have worked tirelessly since then to make sure the gameplay experience got to where it absolutely should have been at launch and we’re focused on that and we continue to deliver value to that player base.
“But when you do things like that you can never guarantee. It would be disingenuous for me to sit here and say, ‘we will never have an issue again,’ because that would mean we were never going to push the boundaries again. And I don’t want to be that company.
“I want to be a company that pushes to lead and innovate and be creative. But you can start to do things that give you a better handle and a better view about what the potential challenges might be.”
Wilson downplayed claims that the shooter was rushed, adding, “DICE had a lot of time this time. Hardline has had three years. Last year was a very unique situation. Not to abdicate responsibility whatsoever – we own it, we are responsible for it and we have worked tirelessly to remedy the situation – but when you are building a game on an unfinished platform with unfinished software, there are some things that can’t get done until the very last minute because the platform wasn’t ready to get done.
“What was happening with Battlefield 4, even as we were pushing all of this innovation, was a lot of it we couldn’t test until really late in the phase. I believe it was unique.”
