‘Battlefield 2042’ is currently free-to-play on Steam

Battlefield 2042 is free on Steam this week, as Dice‘s shooter enjoys a resurgence in popularity following a poorly received launch.

Battlefield 2042‘s free-to-play period kicked off last night (March 13), and will allow players to jump in at no cost until Thursday (March 16).

For the same four days, Battlefield 2042 is currently 70 per cent off its usual price and can be bought for £14.99.

“Seize the chance to sample all the frantic battles, intense maps, hi-tech weapons, powerful vehicles, and unique Specialist soldiers the game has to offer,” reads the free period’s announcement page. “Battlefield 2042 has come a long way since launch, and with Season 4: Eleventh Hour the experience is bigger and better than ever before.”

As Dice has acknowledged in the post, 2042 is currently seeing a shift in popularity. The shooter was hit with thousands of negative player reviews when it first launched in 2021, with critics taking aim at the “broken mess” due to a range of technical issues and unpopular design choices.

A petition demanding refunds reached over 50,000 signatures, while soon after launch Battlefield 2042 became one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam.

Even David Goldfarb, who was the lead director for Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2, said that he was “astonished” at 2042’s “missteps”.

However, Dice has spent over a year patching the game, and sentiment on the game is beginning to turn around. Battlefield‘s original class system was restored in January, while prior updates hammered out bugs and introduced new maps.

In February, NME claimed that Battlefield 2042 has “completed its redemption arc” since reintroducing the class system.

“It feels like the game has just gotten out of its own way a bit and let people get stuck in and enjoy the huge firefights that Battlefield has always been known for,” reads our feature. “This is great news, because no one does large-scale combat quite like Battlefield 2042.”

In other gaming news, Cloud Imperium Games has apologised for the “super rough launch” of Star Citizen‘s Alpha 3.18 update.