Battlefield 2042 had a rough start and it drove a lot of players away, but there were still some interesting parts of the game. One of them is the Hazard Zone mode, inspired by the Hunt: Showdown. Players are being dropped to an area in squads of four and hunting the data drives scattered around the map. While it is a fun idea, playerbase of Battlefield 2042 did not heavily praise it so far.
DICE noticed this, and they announced that the mode will not receive any further updates while it stays available for those who enjoy it. In the update notes, they explained it as “All of us on the team had great ambition and high hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout our development, but we’re the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn’t found the right home in Battlefield 2042 and that we’ll benefit greatly from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with. Hazard Zone will stay as part of the experience, we’re not switching it off, but beyond addressing critical errors and odd behaviors that may appear in the future, we’re no longer actively developing new experiences or content for the mode, and you’ll find that maps that we release across our seasons will not be supported in Hazard Zone.”
It did not surprise us since the announcement came after the cancellation of 128-player Breakthrough playlist, dropping down to 64 players. As much as DICE preferred to explain it with the reason of “being more tactical”, it was obvious that the main difficulty was filling the servers easily and properly.
Battlefield 2042 Season 1 is scheduled to release in June, and the new update focuses on critical changes and improvements.
