EA has announced that the release date for Battlefield V will be delayed, a month later than planned, on November 20.
In a blog post on the EA website, DICE General manage Oskar Gabrielson revealed the news that the game’s release would be pushed back, citing a number of reasons.
The main focus seems to be on improving ‘core gameplay’, and giving them more time to fine tune the game. It also gives them more time to make changes based on the open beta.
However, some also speculate that they want to avoid the busy launch period surrounding Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Here is the full statement from DICE and EA on the delayed release:
Today, we’re announcing that Battlefield V will have a new launch date – November 20, 2018. I wanted to give you a little bit of insight into how we arrived at this new date.
- Over the summer, we’ve had tens of thousands of players get their hands on the game during our Closed Alphas and at E3 and Gamescom – where we were honored to receive the awards for Best Multiplayer Game at both shows.
We believe we have one of the best Battlefield games ever on our hands. A game that will deliver on an emotional journey through the return of unseen single player War Stories, a deep multiplayer experience, Battle Royale, along with our new live service, Tides of War – a journey across multiple theaters of WW2 and designed to keep our community together.
- With the Open Beta just around the corner, we are excited about the millions of you who will join us and experience the game. And we fully expect to see even more feedback coming our way.
The dates for the Open Beta have not changed, and will still go ahead on September 6.
Fans of the Battlefield franchise may be happy with the change, because even if it is being done simply to avoid direct competition with CoD and Red Dead Redemption 2, it will give DICE more time to improve the game.
The battle royale mode is also a significant undertaking, and that too will need a lot of work, to compete with the already established games in the genre, as well as the new competition coming from CoD specifically.
Source: EA
