‘Battlefield Hardline’ Delayed To Improve Game, EA’s Reputation

Electronic Arts and DICE made a decision about Battlefield Hardline on Tuesday that will affect the bottom line, but improve the reputation of both following the Battlefield 4 launch debacle last year. The upcoming PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC cops and robbers-themed shooter was delayed to 2015 to make the game better.

Battlefield Hardline, in development with Visceral Games, was originally scheduled to be launched at the end of October on all platforms. Feedback from the PS4 and PC beta that launched during E3 was enough to make the decision to delay the game.

“Back at E3, we launched a beta for Hardline — we wanted to not only show you the game, but to let you play it for yourselves,” DICE Vice President Karl Magnus Troedsson wrote on the Battlefield Blog. “Millions of you jumped in and had a great time. As a result, the Visceral Games team learned a lot from players about what they wanted in the game. We’ve been pouring over the data and feedback, and have already been putting a lot of it right into the game and sharing it directly with you.”

“This feedback also spurred us to start thinking about other possibilities and ways we could push Hardline innovation further and make the game even better,” Troedsson continued. “The more we thought about these ideas, the more we knew we had to get them into the game you will all be playing. However, there was only one problem. We would need more time. Time that we didn’t have if we decided to move forward with launching in just a couple of months.”

Here is what DICE says the delay will allow them to accomplish with Battlefield Hardline.

1. Multiplayer Innovation: Coming out of our E3 beta, internal focus tests, and work with our community, we have received a lot of great Multiplayer thinking. We’re going to be adding some new feature ideas direct from the community that will evolve the cops and criminals fantasy into a truly unique Battlefield Multiplayer experience.

2. Single Player Story Depth: In order to ensure our Single Player experience delivers on player expectations, we’re spending more time polishing our core features, as well as adding a few new ones that will support a deeper “crime revenge” story experience.

3. Stability: This has been a focus for our team since day one and we’re going to be using the extra time to continue to optimize the game for a stable launch. We have learned a lot from Battlefield 4, are continuing to learn from our Community Test Environment and will learn more from another Hardline beta. More time allows us to surface issues that the team can attempt to fix prior to launch.

Not mentioned is getting the Xbox One and PS4 version of the game to 1080p.

The Hardline delay comes on the heels of the bashing that Electronic Arts and DICE received for the dismal state in which Battlefield 4 launched last October. The game was nearly unplayable for many until after the release of several patches over the course of months. Electronic Arts was also reeling at the time from a poor reputation due to releasing games in a shoddy state prior to this, and had been named the worst company in America two years in a row by The Consumerist.

Since then, the company changed CEO from John Riccitello to Andrew Wilson in September 2013 and made moves to improve its reputation. Despite the reviled “free-to-play” Dungeon Keeper mobile title, those moves have primarily focused on attempting to improve the quality of the games released based on feedback from gamers. There have been changes made to SimCity, and the decision to delay Battlefield Hardline out of the important holiday season and Dragon Age:Inquisition to November reflects the shift.

The big winners with the delay of Battlefield Hardline will be competitors like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Destiny. Games like Evolve, Sunset Overdrive, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will also benefit as gamers look for something different outside of the three most anticipated shooters of the year.

Gamer reaction to the delay on Twitter has been positive so far, but for different reasons.

Good on EA for pushing Battlefield: Hardline back, they wouldn’t be able to handle another Battlefield 4 like debacle.

— Sam Kulii (@whatsPlay) July 22, 2014

EA delaying Battlefield Hardline to 2015 is very, very smart. Quality issues aside, going head-to-head vs. CoD w/BF or MoH just hasnt worked

— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) July 22, 2014

One less game to worry about this year now Battlefield Hardline has been delayed

— Jemma Catt (@Aya_Kun) July 22, 2014

What do you think of EA’s decision to push Battlefield Hardline to 2015? Sound off in the comments below.