When Dice said the next entry in the Battlefield franchise is going to shake up the long-running series, the entire battlefield community already started boarding the hype train, Although the previous entry to the franchise, Battlefield 1 despite being a success had its fair share of problems. Battlefield players weren't happy about it, then too while reaching the end cycle of updates to Battlefield 1 it was seen that it lost about 60% of the player base in its 2 years of update cycle.
Then came DICE with the tease of the next Battlefield game. EA was already surrounded by the negative aura from all the backlash of the Battlefront 2 loot boxes controversy. Then came the time where the first trailer for Battlefield V was to be shown off at E3 2018, "oh boy, a massive disaster it was" the community rained down on EA for its poor presentation and a very pathetic trailer.
Community forums were already being filled with all sorts of topic regarding the new game and the direction it's going. Not to forget the outrage about the overly portrayed female soldier from the trailer with a prosthetic arm, the single player trailer dropped after this made situation a little better but it wasn't enough to patch the damage that has been done to Battlefield as a whole. Keeping in mind "the first impression is always the best impression", following up with this divisive topic and EA facing pressure from every possible direction including the community from the media, they launched the Gamescom trailer for Battlefield V. After seeing the trailer instantly almost everyone got the thought that "this should've been the E3 trailer which instead of all the flashy hinting to all the possible cosmetics in the experience of the game to the gritty, grim and grounded experience for which Battlefield is known for". But it was a little too late as analyst from the industry already marking Battlefield V to have pre-orders far lesser than the likes of Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Leading up to all this let's recall how the EA executive Patrick Soderlund responded to all the outrage from the community "I think those people who don't understand it, well, you can either accept it and buy the game or don't." This response was the perfect fuel needed to the already waging wildfire from the players, forward to a later date it is known that Patrick Soderlund has left EA.
According to the information from Sarah.E.Needleman from The Wall Street Journal, pre-order sales for Battlefield V has been weak. The main reasons being that the release window of the game is sandwiched between other 2 juggernauts from the competition and the most dominant one being Red Dead Redemption 2 which is a much-anticipated game than Battlefield 5 and Black Ops 4. This doesn't mean that Battlefield 5 is dead upon release and looking at the worst case scenario EA will make back the money spend on the game through micro transactions which is going to be all over the game.
However, Battlefield 5 is not to be written off completely, with making all the DLC's for the game down the line free unlike Black Ops 4 which is still following an outdated and straight up horrendous map pack. The inclusion of the Battle Royale mode too in the game also has been getting divisive response from the community, "as the mainstream giant of a shooter Battlefield is it is not supposed to chase sudden trends and should be making tides within the genre by making changes and adding other mechanics." Not to ignore the subtle building mechanics in the game which is inspired straight up from Fortnite, Call of Duty being the abominable cash cow which stopped innovating in games long ago the BR mode is not even worth a talk.
From the gameplay experiences from the alpha phases of Battlefield 5, it is of no short a fun shooter. But the core experience can be stomped on by the wrong decisions EA makes. They can't afford to take such a damage since the community is already divisive about the game and the release window is such a choke. On an ending note there's not much time left for DICE to turn things dramatically. What they can do is shape the game up into a solid experience.
Battlefield 5 is all set to release on October 21 across all platforms.
Also read: EA rolls out new Battlefield 5 trailer ahead of Gamescom ‘18