Battlefield 2042 "Winding Down" Hazard Zone Mode

As DICE looks ahead to all the improvements and new content coming to Battlefield 2042 as part of the game's first season, the developer has announced that support for the game's Escape from Tarkov-inspired mode, Hazard Zone, is "winding down."

Hazard Zone will still remain playable, DICE says, and the team will address "critical errors or odd behaviors" in the mode should they appear in the future. However, the mode won't receive any new content.

"All of us on the team had great ambition and high hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout development, but we're the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn't found the right home in Battlefield 2042 and that we'll benefit greatly from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with," Battlefield community lead Adam Freeman writes in a lengthy blog post outlining changes and updates coming to the game in the near future.

The news comes as DICE outlines what the team has learned since Battlefield 2042's rocky launch and what the teams are currently focusing on ahead of the launch of Season 1, set to release in June. Improvements are coming to nearly every aspect of the game, ranging from map updates that will add more cover to adjustments to how Specialists are portrayed. Some of those changes will be to make Specialists "feel grittier, and closer to the more serious tone that we want to come across in our narrative" while also toning down their more immersion-breaking voice lines and ensuring future cosmetics for Specialists are "more grounded" and military-themed.

DICE recently removed the game's 128-player Breakthrough mode, instead choosing to focus on the 64-player Breakthrough experience, which DICE says helps the team to "build more focused frontlines for the engagement" and results in a more tactical and less chaotic player experience. Conquest will still support 128 players on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Having "unshackled" themselves from having to make modes specifically for 128 players, it sounds like future new modes won't necessarily have 64v64 in mind.

A prime example of that is the news that Battlefield's Rush game mode will be a key part of Battlefield 2042 Season 1 and will only support 32 players. The mode will come with improvements learned from the inclusion of Rush as part of Battlefield Portal. Speaking of Battlefield Portal, maps from the mode (which features remade levels from past Battlefield games like Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3) will join the game's All-Out Warfare rotation, "to help bring more variety to our Core Modes." Select weapons and gadgets from past games currently featured in Battlefield Portal will also be added to the game's All-Out Warfare playlist.

Season 1 will introduce the Battlefield franchise's first battle pass, which will sport both free and premium tiers. Gameplay items like new weapons and gadgets will be accessible via the battle pass's free tiers, with players also able to earn free and premium cosmetics.

It's all part of what DICE describes as its "continued commitment" to Battlefield 2042, with the blog post stating it is the developer's mission to restore "the trust that many of you feel was hurt when we launched back in November of last year."

EA and DICE have doubled down on the Battlefield franchise in recent months, despite Battlefield 2042's disappointing launch. Head of Respawn Entertainment Vince Zampella now oversees the franchise, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently saying Battlefield is still an important part of the publisher's portfolio and that it is "rethinking the development process" for future installments of the franchise.