surrounding the future of the franchise. One of these steps was the appointment of Rebecka Coutaz as general manager at DICE. Coutaz is an experienced
studio manager, with 10 years leading Ubisoft Annecy on her impressive CV, having contributed to some of the biggest modern hits to have come out of Ubisoft in the last ten years, including Steep, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Driver: San Francisco. So why change companies and move to Stockholm? “I don’t know if you know, but I’m actually
from Sweden, I’m from Gothenburg. Of course, I’ve grown up and I’ve been programmed in Gothenburg, and being Swedish, of course, I’ve always looked at DICE with a lot of admiration. I followed that team for a very, very long time. I’ve been very proud of them. I’ve always dreamed about being able to join them. It’s a super talented team, and DICE the studio is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Battlefield is celebrating a 20th anniversary. So I’ve been looking at this team for a long time. To be able to join them and build on the future together with this team is very, very cool.”
ON BATTLEFIELD Efforts have been ongoing to fix the issues found within Battlefield 2042 over at DICE, and Coutaz has been one of many people that is leading the charge in rebuilding the perception of both the development studio and the brand after their last game basically flopped out of the gate. She understands however, that recovering will be a process that will take some time, dependent on ongoing work at the studio, as well as listening to the continuing discussion between the Battlefield team and its community of players. “When it comes to Battlefield 2042, our players
were disappointed, but so were we as a team. We were sad, and our players as well. So we have continued to improve on the game. You know that we have focused on the game’s health, we have focused on the core gameplay mechanics, and we had to push Season One out because of that
July 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 51
reason. Little by little we have improved the game, we have listened to our community and we have implemented their priorities, I would say, which are also our priorities. So little by little we have improved 2042, and the only way for us to regain that trust from that community is to continue to deliver. To deliver on our commitments. So that is what we are set out to do. So yes, it was a difficult situation, however, we can lean — and I’m being humble — we lean on 30 years of experience, with a great team, with a lot of Battlefield veterans. We are a legacy in the industry. We will continue to improve, we will continue to be better. We will continue to ensure that we can meet our players’ expectations of all the gameplay experiences that we provide.” So, how are things feeling these days, eight
months after launch? As DICE continues to fulfil its promises to its player base in Battlefield 2042, morale continues to shift inside the Stockholm- based studio. A negative reaction can be a crushing thing for any creative team, but the studio head steadfastly believes that the only way out is through, and that with each game update and piece of new content launched, things are improving for everyone. “You know, we are game creators and we create
our games with our heart and our stomach. And we are nearly like artists going into a vernissage.
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