Battlefield 2042 PS5 PlayStation 5 1

Have you been following Battlefield 2042 at all? People are mad – like, really, really mad. A lot of it is valid, to be fair – while we thought the first-person shooter was okay, we noted in our review that it would need a lot of work to reach its full potential. Now, with developer DICE going quiet over the holidays, fan frustration is bubbling over.

That’s led to the moderators of the game’s subreddit posting an ultimatum: turn down the toxicity or the page will be closed. Things bubbled over recently when global communications bigwig Andy McNamara tweeted that the team had taken a Christmas break and was just getting back to work. “Love you guys but these expectations are brutal,” he said. “The things you want take time to scope, design, and execute.”

As you can imagine, these messages didn’t go down well, and McNamara has since apologised. But the community remains angered by the state of the game, which has prompted its subreddit’s moderation team to step in: “Over the past few days we have seen insults, harassment, and vile comments directed towards members of our community and DICE employees,” a pinned post said. “We are making this statement to give you fair warning that we will not tolerate this anymore.”

The post is clear: constructive criticism is encouraged but toxicity is not. It warns that if things get worse, then it’ll have no option but to temporarily close the page while users calm down. DICE did tease artwork from what looks like a new map this week, so fingers-crossed it can course-correct swiftly and satiate disillusioned players.

[source reddit.com, via pcgamer.com]