Electronic Arts has announced that the upcoming Battlefield Hardline has been delayed until 2015. This leaves 2014 without a new Battlefield title, in contrast with the fears that EA was attempting to turn the franchise into one with an annual release schedule. The reason for this appears to be due to user feedback from the recently concluded closed beta test.
A post on the Battlefield blog outlined the parts of the game that EA has decided needs improvements, and is giving the developers extra time to work on. It is a different sort of tone coming from a publisher that has been known to cut corners in order to meet launch dates. EA could be learning from the mistakes made from the Battlefield 4 launch, which still has issues that are yet to be corrected.
The main concern raised during the beta test was that BF Hardline was too similar to BF4, and could have easily been served as a DLC expansion instead of a full priced game. EA is currently promising to go back to the drawing board to make the Hardline multiplayer experience substantially different from the previous game. Although considering that this is a Battlefield game, there really isn’t very far they can go with the gameplay.
Fans of the franchise will still be receiving new content this year with the ‘Dragons Teeth’ DLC coming at the end of this month and ‘Final Stand’ arriving later in the year.
[Source: Battlefield Blog]
