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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Rory Norris

EA accidentally made the right decision twice in one month and reverted it both times, inflicting psychic damage on Battlefield 6 players

Battlefield 6: Key art for Season 3 showing a soldier tapping an enemy on the shoulder while raising their other arm to hit them with an EOD bot arm melee weapon.

In an update early last month, Battlefield 6 accidentally made a change everyone loved. The in-game description of XP Boosters was changed to say that they would now count down only while you're actively playing a match, rather than in real time, as they have since launch. Wasting your precious boosts because you've had to log off is, unsurprisingly, annoying as hell.

Naturally, instead of formally making this highly requested change a reality, Battlefield Studios decided it didn't want the easy PR win, explaining: "We’re working to correct the in-game text in a future update and apologize for the confusion."

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of EA shooting itself in the foot and handing away the easy wins. Alongside the latest update on the final day of June, which overhauled gunplay, came a sequel to the slip-up.

Players were greeted by an official pop-up message claiming that XP Boosters would now work on in-game time. "We will track what percentage of the length of the match you have an XP Booster active, then multiply the final match bonus XP by the appropriate percentage for each," the alert reads. "Plus, for easier tracking and activation, the Booster menu is now located in the Lobby."

Battlefield Studios quickly followed up on social media with a correction: "Earlier today, an in-game message about XP Boosters was sent in error. That message has now been removed, and there are no changes to how XP Boosters currently work."

That's a neat surprise! from r/Battlefield6

"That's a neat surprise!" cheered player UltimateGamingTechie on Reddit, elated by the goodwill of such a change, only to be shot down by the revelation that this in-game message was, in fact, a cruel, cruel lie. Sorry bud.

I'm not sure how—in the span of just one month—you accidentally make the right decision twice, and immediately turn it down twice, but it's happened. The one silver lining is that the developers "appreciate all your feedback on this topic" and will share it with the team, so maybe it'll see the light of day eventually. It could very well do, given we've been living in the 'we've heard your feedback' era of Battlefield Studios, following a rocky few months post-launch.

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