Battlefield 2042 is having a really messy launch. Now, as it becomes clear that fixes for BF2042 aren’t coming anytime soon, more than 150,000 players have signed a Change.org petition asking Electronic Arts to offer refunds to all players on all platforms.
The petition, simply titled “Allow Refund for Battlefield 2042 on All Platforms,” started roughly four weeks ago and didn’t get much attention, but in the last few days, thousands of players have signed on. Most likely, many of these new folks are signing the petition for refunds after EA and Dice announced a series of delays for both big and small BF2042 content updates. According to EA, BF2042 won’t receive any new content until summer, about six months after the game released. Updates to add things like voice chat and the scoreboard have also been delayed.
As of Friday afternoon, the petition has more than 160,000 signatures, which, according to Change.org representatives, makes it one of the biggest and most popular petitions of the year. Neither EA nor Dice have responded to the growing petition or player demands for refunds across all platforms. While Steam is reportedly offering refunds to BF2042 players, folks on PlayStation and Xbox have been so far unable to secure similar deals due to stricter anti-refund policies on those platforms. As we saw during the Cyberpunk 2077 fiasco last year, it’s not easy to get storefronts like Xbox and PlayStation to offer refunds on digitally purchased games. (Also, what is it with video games that have a 20XX year at the end?)
The petition claims that if it hits over 50,000 signatures, the creator will contact lawyers to potentially start a class-action lawsuit against EA and Dice. Kotaku contacted EA about the petition and the ongoing BF2042 situation but didn’t hear back before publication.
Since its November release, Battlefield 2042 players have encountered numerous bugs, broken features, and other annoying problems and issues. Some of these have been fixed, only to be replaced with other problems. Meanwhile, features like voice chat remain MIA.
According to data provided by Change.org, the BF2042 refund petition is the third largest video game-related petition in the site’s history. For those curious, here are the top six.
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Make Shaggy DLC in Mortal Kombat 11 (381,000 signatures)
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Valve: Do Not Launch Active Shooter Video Game (279,000 signatures)
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Refunds for Battlefield 2042 (150,000+ signatures)
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Take Down Rape Day Video Game (128,000 signatures)
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Continue Star Wars Battlefront Support (118,000 signatures)
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Immortalise Shirley Curry as an Elder Scrolls NPC (49,000 signatures)
These situations can quickly spiral into toxic nightmares, even if the initial call to action seems fair. I think it’s reasonable for folks to request a refund for a live service online title if it continues to delay content and updates for months.
But, of course, checking out some of the responses on the petition makes it hard to side with the fans as some suggest a giant conspiracy involving critics and EA to trick gamers into buying an unfished game. Others suggest EA doesn’t test their games or that the devs are lazy. These are great examples of how the general public doesn’t understand how hard it is to create video games, especially online-focused titles. Sure, EA should fix the game, and I think offering refunds is a fairly good-faith gesture. But I also hate the idea that some of these folks signing the petition will win if EA does offer refunds across all platforms.
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