'We are subservient to the players': Battlefield 6 ditched 128-player matches in favour of classic 64 players after it 'didn't catch on' in Battlefield 2042

There's always a silver lining to be found, even when everything seems to go sideways. In the case of Battlefield 2042, the last instalment in the series, Battlefield Studios has been able to look at it and go, 'Yeah, we won't do that again' when it comes to laying the groundwork for Battlefield 6.

Battlefield 2042 isn't looked back on very fondly by players. Its futuristic setting robbed players of the usual gritty and grounded setting of previous Battlefield games, and it took chances on new ideas that didn't land well. One such being 128-player matches.

"We thought larger player numbers would work—it just didn't catch on," design director Shashank Uchil tells Edge magazine (via GamesRadar). "It's like when a band tries a new sound. Because we like it, but then players don't—and in the end, we are subservient to the players, we do what the players want."

128-player matches in Battlefield 2042 proved to be a tad too much for players to get to grips with. Battlefield is known for pure chaos, but such a significant bump up from the usual 64-player matches was just too much to keep track of.

"Look, we try stuff," Uchil says. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's as simple as that." And when it doesn't work out, well, Uchil acknowledges that Battlefield players won't shy away from telling "you what they want."

Apparently, the devs "all read the Reddit." When it comes to gauging player feedback, Uchil sees Reddit as "the number-one source—all of us are on there."

Part of the reason why Battlefield 6 has managed to hype players up so much is due to just how badly 2042 crashed and burned. It really feels like players are desperate for a good old-fashioned return to form—just an enjoyable classic Battlefield that players can get behind. So there's certainly a decent amount of pressure on Battlefield Studios to pull off a redemption arc.

"[The devs] were disappointed in Battlefield 2042, too," Battlefield lead and EA manager Rebecka Coutaz says. "And, across all the studios, they did not want to allow this to happen again. We had a lot of expectations from the community. And the players who have been with us for decades. So we owed some things to them—and, of course, to our teams as well."