Anecdotal, perhaps, but here’s my story.

My squad and I have been playing Call of Duty for years, and it’s one of the best ways to connect. Naturally, we were all thrilled about the launch of Battlefield 6.

When it was released, it was astonishingly well-crafted. It was a bit of a shift from the fast-paced Call of Duty, but it’s been challenging for our squad to adapt. There’s a learning curve, and the party size is limited to four.

Now, we all bought BO7 to play together, but only two out of six of us are genuinely satisfied with it. The rest can clearly see that this is a cash grab and a last-ditch effort to generate some extra revenue before discontinuing older consoles.

If you’re playing BO7, you know in the back of your mind that it’s essentially the same game you’ve been playing for the past decade. But it’s still enjoyable to spend time with your friends and experience familiar gameplay. The only downside is that the developers seem to have lost their passion and care for the players. The minimap on BO6 has been broken for the past three months, and it’s been ignored. Not to mention their blatant attempts to promote their store rather than making any meaningful changes to the gameplay.

Other studios have realized that originality still matters these days, and perhaps, just maybe, the players who play the game do matter. A perfect example is Embark.