Yesterday’s live reveal of Battlefield 5 was short on game footage, but it did show EA and DICE’s desire to give fans what they want in the game. Or rather, in this case, to get rid of what they don’t want: season passes and loot boxes.
This year, however, DICE is finding itself fending off trailer dislikes after its Battlefield 5 debut.
The BF5 spot has 158,000 likes to 121,000 dislikes, a worse ratio than this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 at 324,000/190,000 and way worse than Battlefield 1 at 2.2 million likes to just 42,000 dislikes.
One common refrain that I’ve heard about Battlefield 5 is that those who have seen the game early say it’s much better than the trailer suggests, and that the livestream reveal did the game no favors by not showing a lot of what makes it great. But I suppose you only get one chance to make a first impression, and it’s been a bit sour for some fans.
I didn’t mind the trailer myself. I do want to know more about whether or not they’re going full alt-history with it, or if has more of a Bad Company type of vibe, which is why the tone seems altered so severely from Battlefield 1. A one-armed woman starring in the game is something I can’t seem to manage any outrage about, and I thought she was…pretty badass, frankly. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her, and to see if she’s based on any of the real-life female heroes of the war.
So yes, another year, another battle over YouTube dislikes. Whether that translates into lesser sales this time around remains to be seen, but with so little of the game seen so far, it’s way too early to judge it.
Battlefield 5 is expected to launch simultaneously on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. An early trial of the game will be available to Origin and EA Access members on Oct. 11. The deluxe edition of the game will unlock on Oct. 16, with the standard edition coming out on Oct. 19.