Rebecka Coutaz joined DICE in November 2021, just two weeks after the launch of Battlefield 2042. "It's crazy, when you come in like that, as the new GM of a studio, and you haven't been on the journey of the previous game," she says. "It's probably the hardest thing I've done in my career, for sure – but a joy as well." Such a situation would be challenging no matter what the studio, no matter what the game. But by 2021, 2042's journey had been anything but smooth.
At launch, the game was greeted by the worst reviews in series history, a precipitous dropoff from its immediate predecessors. It was a sentiment echoed by the players: at one point 2042's Steam user reviews were among the ten worst on the entire platform, and within two months of release its player numbers had dropped below that of the already three-year-old Battlefield V.
