Rant incoming: Battlefield 6 needs more than minor QoL fixes

Battlefield 6 is getting another quality-of-life patch tomorrow with update 1.3.1.5, which is meant to address several technical issues. EA lists more consistent gameplay, fewer respawn and deployment problems and clearer information in Battle Royale and Portal as the main goals. The full patch notes can be found here.

This article, however, looks at a broader question: why is one of last year’s biggest shooter releases, backed by EA – one of the world’s largest publishers – still struggling with technical issues more than half a year after launch? While the discussion around launch was dominated by audio and netcode problems, graphics bugs and matchmaking now seem to be among players’ biggest complaints.

In a Reddit thread about the upcoming update, players mainly report massive server problems: lag spikes, being placed in the wrong regions, high pings and persistent hit registration issues are severely limiting the fun for those affected. On top of that, newly introduced graphics bugs also appear to be causing trouble. One user, for example, describes a glitch that makes the entire screen glow “brighter than the sun.”

A drop in the bucket

I took part in both Battlefield 6 open beta weekends in August 2025 and actually came away very optimistic. After the Battlefield 2042 disaster, the playtest reminded me of the golden age of the series – namely Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. Even after the release in October, I spent a lot of time in the game and initially brushed off the technical problems that were already present back then with optimism. After all, Battlefield 6 is not an indie title with an uncertain future. I thought: DICE and EA, with their large development team and extensive budget, will surely manage to build on this strong foundation, fix the problems quickly and deliver plenty of content – especially after such a strong launch, which even outperformed genre leader Call of Duty.

As it has since turned out, I was probably a little too optimistic. It feels like every fixed bug is replaced by a new one. At least the content seems to be slowly moving in the right direction: the new Railway to Golmud map has been well received by many players and naval battles, one of the most requested features, are already waiting in the wings. Nevertheless, I have not logged into the game for several weeks. My initial euphoria has now turned into frustration. And if SteamDB’s player numbers are any indication, I am not alone. In the last 24 hours, only 58,676 players were online at the same time – not even 10% of the launch player count. The downward trend is also reflected in the Steam reviews: only 64% of more than 274,000 player ratings are still positive.

That is not necessarily because Battlefield 6 is a bad game. The foundation is still rock solid and, in my opinion, has huge potential. However, the shooter simply feels too broken in too many places. I get the impression that EA and DICE have lost the thread somewhere along the way – the technical side simply seems to be overwhelming the developers. Better content or small quality-of-life updates such as patch 1.3.1.5 will do little to change that. If the developers do not get the disastrous technical situation under control soon, the future looks bleak for Battlefield 6. For me, this patch feels like little more than a drop in the bucket.