‘Almost everyone’ at DICE still working on Battlefield 2042, dev says

Rumors that DICE has all but abandoned Battlefield 2042 to work on the next game may be completely unfounded, according to a recent comment from a developer on the game.

Following the announcement that 2042‘s next major patch will launch next week, game designer Frederik Drabert recently tweeted that “almost everyone” at DICE is still working on the game. Drabert also confirmed that DICE is “working on many different areas and a lot of improvements are on the way.” Some of those improvements could include the map changes DICE previously detailed, which are set to launch during Season 1.

Given the slower-than-expected cadence of 2042‘s release updates and the delay of Season 1 to early summer, fans began to speculate that DICE has moved on from 2042 and was only keeping a skeleton crew on to fulfill its Year 1 pass obligations. It’s unclear by Drabert’s comments exactly how many people are still working on the game, though LinkedIn charts DICE’s employee count in the high 500s.

What’s also unclear what role Battlefield Portal developer Ripple Effect still has in 2042‘s ongoing development. Electronic Arts announced in December that Respawn boss Vince Zampella was taking over the Battlefield franchise, and part of that was giving Ripple Effect an entirely new Battlefield experience to work on.

A still-unnamed Seattle studio, led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, is also working on something Battlefield related, though that’s more of a narrative-focused experience.

Battlefield 2042‘s next update looks to be a big one. According to the game’s community manager, Update 4.0 will include “400+” fixes and quality of life improvements when it launches next week.

Battlefield 2042 is available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.