Battlefield 2042 Is Officially Joining Game Pass
The life of Battlefield 2042 has been drawn out, and it's frankly agonising to watch. The title had the potential to be the defining FPS game of the modern era of gaming, but instead, was a buggy, broken, and unfinished smattering of ideas that simply don't mesh together.
Fans have been defecting to classic Battlefield games to lick their wounds, and even though EA and DICE are still trying to make it work, nobody's biting on the efforts to bring fans back. For some time, there have only been a few options for the game if it wants to see any kind of continued success - and it has felt like the companies behind it have been reluctant to give up on sales. But, it looks like they've folded.
Is Battlefield 2042 Coming To Game Pass?
There have been fan calls for Battlefield 2042 to either go free-to-play, or head to the Xbox Game Pass to reduce friction between payment and players and shoot a bit of a player base back into the game. Despite these having been largely ignored by EA and DICE since Battlefield 2042 launched, it looks like they've changed their minds.
In a new video from the Battlefield team, the devs gave us an update on developments like reworks of some of the game's specialists. It's also been revealed that the game will eventually be coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate via EA Access. It's a fall from grace but one we all expected.
A developer blog post explains, "We're proud of the work that we’ve done over the past 12 months and so if you haven't jumped in yet, starting in Season 3 we’ll be introducing Battlefield 2042 into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and making the game available for subscribers with EA Play." This means the Game Pass version of Battlefield 2042 will presumably be coming to both new-gen consoles and PC at the very least. But that's not all.
Battlefield 2042 Will Have A Free Weekend In December
Not only is the game gearing up to go free eventually - seemingly to coincide with the game's third season - but it will also be getting a free weekend across all consoles.
If you haven't played the game yet, you can jump in on these dates:
- Xbox: December 1 - December 4
- Steam: December 1 - December 5
- PlayStation: December 16 - December 23
It's a little irritating that these free-play weekends aren't timed for cross-play across all platforms, but we imagine it's just another logistical nightmare on top of the stack of logistical nightmares that Battlefield 2042 is. Still, this is a nice change. Who knows, maybe Battlefield 2042's return is just around the corner. Doubtful, but we'll see.
