Battlefield 2042 Finally Kicks Off Its Long-Awaited First Season ’Zero Hour’
Battlefield 2042 has had a very rough journey since the multiplayer shooter first launched in October 2021. But despite lower than expected sales and player counts, Electronic Arts is still plowing ahead with the game’s development with the start of the game’s first-ever season, Season One: Zero Hour.
The season was initially scheduled to kick off in early 2022 but was delayed to summer and is now live with a new map, a new specialist, and a host of other new content.
Season One: Zero Hour comes with a mountainous new map called Exposure. Based on the Canadian Rockies, the new map features extreme vertical terrain with multiple points of interest including a military command center nestled within a rocky mountain cliff. Players also get access to a new vehicle-killing expert specialist named Ewelina Lis, new stealth helicopters, and a season battle pass with both a free and premium reward track.
The length of time needed to kick off the Battlefield 2042’s first season has led to speculation that the game is now being run by a skeleton crew while the rest of the team works on the new Battlefield game. EA previously admitted that the game didn’t meet expectations but vehemently denies the rumors that they’ve abandoned its development.
“There is a significant team across studios focused on evolving and improving the Battlefield 2042 experience for our players, and at the heart of that is our team at DICE,” EA told GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb. “We are committed to the future of Battlefield 2042 and our areas of focus for the game, based on what we have heard from our players, was laid out in our recent development update.”
It’s also worth noting that the playerbase has seen a massive spike with the launch of Season 1 with over 14,700 players currently online as of this writing compared to the 3,500 player average that the game was logging prior to its release earlier this week.
