EA’s grand vision for Battlefield V was clear, deliver a gripping World War II experience while pushing for a more inclusive and diverse gaming landscape. Instead, it found itself on the battlefield of public opinion, fighting for relevance in a crowded holiday season.
Analysts were quick to raise the alarm, with Cowen warning that the game was lagging behind Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassin’s Creed. And just like that, what was meant to be EA’s holiday blockbuster turned into a lesson in market miscalculation.
But beyond sales figures, Battlefield V also became an unexpected lightning rod for controversy. The inclusion of female soldiers in frontline combat triggered a heated debate over historical accuracy versus creative freedom. While EA stood its ground, the backlash was fierce.
Did this controversy contribute to the game’s underperformance, or was it simply caught in a crossfire of bad timing and tough competition? Let’s break it down.
Battlefield V faced a brutal campaign against sales charts
For EA, Battlefield V was supposed to be the game that defined the holiday season. Instead, it became the equivalent of a lone soldier charging into a heavily fortified bunker, brave, but ultimately doomed.
According to Games Industry, the game sold 7.3 million copies by the end of 2018, which sounds impressive until you realize that EA had expected at least 8 million. That’s a million copies lost to the battlefield of consumer indifference.
So, what went wrong? Analysts at Cowen (via CNBC) pinpointed several factors, the biggest being timing. The game was originally slated for an October 2018 release but was delayed to November, shoving it into a market already dominated by Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It was like showing up fashionably late to a party where everyone was already busy dancing with other partners.
Then there was the missing Battle Royale mode, which was all the rage in 2018 thanks to Fortnite and PUBG. Instead of launching with a BR mode, EA decided to focus on a traditional single-player experience, delaying the Firestorm battle royale mode until March 2019, by which time most players had already moved on.
Ultimately, Battlefield V had all the makings of a great game, stunning visuals, immersive gameplay, and an ambitious take on World War II. But like a soldier with a jammed rifle, it simply couldn’t fire at the right moment.
Why gamers couldn’t handle a female battlefield
While timing and missing features were critical issues, Battlefield V also became the unexpected battleground for an entirely different war, the one over female representation in gaming.
The controversy started when EA DICE revealed Battlefield V‘s trailer, showcasing a female soldier in frontline combat. Instead of excitement, some sections of the gaming community erupted in outrage, accusing EA of historical inaccuracy. EA, to its credit, refused to back down. Oskar Gabrielson, General Manager at DICE, responded bluntly on Twitter.
And honestly, the argument for historical accuracy didn’t hold much weight. While it’s true that the majority of frontline combatants in WWII were men, women did play critical roles in combat. According to PCMag, Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko racked up 309 confirmed kills, and the Night Witches, an all-female Soviet bomber regiment, struck fear into the German forces.
But despite EA’s firm stance, the controversy snowballed. Some players refused to buy the game, arguing that EA was pushing political correctness into their historically inaccurate, explosion-filled, grenade-spamming, endlessly respawning war simulator. Others, however, praised the move as a necessary step toward diversity in gaming.
So, did the backlash actually hurt sales? It’s hard to say definitively, but it certainly didn’t help. Between the delayed release, the missing battle royale mode, and the controversy over female soldiers, Battlefield V faced an uphill battle from the start.
At the end of the day, Battlefield V was a victim of its own ambition. EA tried to innovate, to take a stand, and to do something different. Unfortunately, in the world of video games, sometimes playing it safe wins the war.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
