Battlefield 2042 Is ‘Winding Down’ Support for Its New Hazard Zone Mode

EA DICE has announced it is no longer developing content for Battlefield 2042‘s Hazard Zone mode just six months after the game launched.

Hazard Zone will still be playable on Battlefield 2042’s current levels but won’t be available on any future DLC maps, and DICE is “no longer actively developing new experiences or content for the mode”.

It announced the news in its latest development update just five days after its 128-player Breakthrough mode was also removed from the game.

Ahead of the Season 1 launch next month, learn about what we’ve been working on for #Battlefield 2042.

Watch our Development Update video 👇

https://t.co/6sYhtOFlpW pic.twitter.com/8dpvlI65St— Battlefield (@Battlefield) May 24, 2022

“We’re winding down future development on Hazard Zone,” the post read. “All of us on the team had great ambition and higher hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout our development, but we’re the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn’t found the right home in Battlefield 2042.

“We’ll greatly benefit from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with.”

Hazard Zone was a four-player mode introduced in Battlefield 2042 that had players locate and collect a series of items throughout the map while fighting off other squads.

Battlefield’s 2042’s Season One, essentially its Battle Pass, was delayed from February to summer 2022 (we now know it’s coming in June) as developer DICE instead chose to focus on more pressing issues like adding a scoreboard to online matches, but this update was also delayed a few days later until it was finally released in March.

Publisher EA admitted around the same time that Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations, and soon after a petition asking for refunds started online that more than 230,000 players have now signed.

DICE announced at the beginning of March that it was aware of several issues within its map design and said it understood why players were calling the game a “walking simulator”. The maps will be fixed one by one starting with Kaleidoscope but not until summer at the earliest.

Battlefield 2042’s number had diminished in the meantime, as in early March it had fewer players on Steam than Battlefield 1, 4, and 5. Voice chat was added a month later, though only for squads and parties, and its latest update (which was released on May 19) included a handful of other changes including the aforementioned removal of 128-player Breakthrough mode.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.