Battlefield 2042 won’t have voice chat at launch

Battlefield 2042 has arrived in its early access period, a week ahead of its public release on Nov. 19, but it’s missing something that some players might find crucial: voice chat. The feature won’t make its way into the game until sometime after the proper launch, developer DICE told Polygon.

Communication is significantly more difficult without voice chat, but Battlefield 2042 does have a ping system with detailed menus to select exactly what you’re trying to highlight for your squadmates. Unfortunately, using pings is extremely awkward and cumbersome, and requires tripping through several menus to get the right ping — rather than the smart ping system of games like Apex Legends.

The lack of voice chat is frustrating for a social solo player in any of Battlefield 2042’s modes, but it’s most noticeable in Hazard Zone. That’s the game’s squad-based tactical mode, which pits you and your three allies against several enemy squads and AI opponents. Hazard Zone is designed to be a careful and strategic experience, but the lack of voice chat makes it a massive pain to play alone. It robs the mode of most of its fun if you don’t have a dedicated squad of friends to play with, whom you can talk to via Discord or your console’s party chat.

DICE didn’t explain its reasoning for excluding voice chat from Battlefield 2042’s launch, but the studio did say that it is working on the feature and that it should be added soon after release — though the developer didn’t specify when that might be. The game will be available for everyone on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One on Nov. 19.