'Battlefield 2042' refund petition gathers over 50,000 signatures in a week

For most fans of the “Battlefield” series, the launch of “Battlefield 2042” last year only led to disappointment, and many of them are no longer waiting for DICE and EA to work on fixing and improving the game. In the gaming world, one of the ultimate expressions of disappointment is to ask for a refund, and more than 50,000 fans have done so by signing a trending online petition.

A four-week-old Change.org petition has gained immense support, especially over the last 24 hours. The creator of the petition, Satoshi Nakamoto, posted an update on Feb. 2, thanking 700 supporters. But reports on Wednesday noted that the petition has already gathered more than 27,000 signatures. And as of this writing, the number of signatures has already surpassed 53,700.

From Change.org

“EA’s release of Battlefield 2042 was a mockery of every customer who purchased this video game for $70 (USD) due to EA’s false advertising,” the petition reads. “Battlefield 2042 has cost consumers millions of dollars in damages and upset thousands of customers worldwide.”

DICE is just one of the five “decision makers” that Nakamoto tagged in the Change.org campaign. The rest of the group includes the US Federal Trade Commission and digital store owners where “Battlefield 2042” is being sold, namely Sony, Steam, and Microsoft.

Steam, PS Store, and Microsoft Store all have policies that typically do not allow customers to get a refund once the game has been played for a certain number of hours or after a few days after purchase. So it usually takes a widespread campaign or public backlash for special refund programs to happen to be implemented, especially since “Battlefield 2042” has been out for a few months now. One recent example was “Cyberpunk 2077,” which forced both Sony and Microsoft to have a no-questions-asked refund policy that was available to players for months.

The petitioners have yet to receive a response from DICE, EA, or any of the companies tagged in the online campaign. But on Feb. 1, the “Battlefield 2042” developer released a statement promising players to address some of the widely reported issues of the game. DICE said it will prioritize working on voice communication, squad loop, and reward loop.