Even though Battlefield 2042 enjoyed a huge amount of hype leading up to its launch, DICE and EA have seemingly failed to keep the promises made ahead of its launch. Instead of launching a wealth of new content to keep the community entertained, DICE was forced to deploy numerous hotfixes and balance patches simply to keep the game up and running.In fact, the issues were substantial enough that Battlefield 2042 is only just now testing out its Season 1 content, and sources claiming to have seen it in action aren't all that impressed. Leaker Tom Henderson has come out with an outline of all the new content featured in BF2042 Season 1: Zero Hour and said it "needs rebranding to Zero Content."Henderson has said that Season 1 features just one extra map and one new Specialist character, as far as major content goes. In regards to smaller, less important items, there seem to be only two new weapons and two new helicopters included. While this information hasn't yet been officially announced and ought to be taken with a pinch of salt, it's mostly in line with DICE's previous offerings for BF2042. What's more, this comes not long after the announcement that Battlefield 2042 is removing its 128 player mode, which makes for a disappointing series of developments for the community.
In a later post, Henderson also said that the members of the media who already have access to Season 1 content are experiencing major technical issues and are often completely unable to play the game. While DICE said it learned valuable lessons from Battlefield 2042, if Henderson's claims are true, the studio is still having a very hard time maintaining the game in its current state.
Further still, DICE previously made clear that Battlefield 2042 is ending Hazard Zone support already. Taking into account all of this information suggests that EA and DICE might be getting ready to put BF2042 into maintenance mode less than a year after it's come out, which is rather unprecedented for such a high-profile multiplayer FPS franchise and may set a troublesome precedent for any future Battlefield games.
Battlefield 2042 had less than 1,000 concurrent players on Steam in early April, and if Henderson is correct on all accounts, it doesn't seem very likely that Season 1 will draw too many people back at this point. Still, DICE could have a Hail Mary of some sort up its sleeve, and the community is eager to find out if that is the case.
Battlefield 2042 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.