I didn’t find the Battlefield: Hardline PS4 beta very entertaining and it looks like Electronic Arts and DICE have heard folks like me loud and clear.
Here are a few of the things the new timing will allow us to accomplish:
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.
The delay into Q1 2015 is welcomed and they’re saying all the right things but unless they’re putting out another beta/demo and demonstrate all the changes they’ve made, I will be keeping funds in my wallet.
I suspect this will be a March 2015 release which makes me wonder how much they could do to differentiate itself from Battlefield 4’s multiplayer. They’re not going to deviate from the vision of a smaller scale but more densely packed multiplayer game, are they?
I wish this was an expansion pack like Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam. They could have sold it for $30 CAD for current Battlefield 4 owners and I may have purchased it because it’s more than just maps. For a retail and digital store presence, they could repackage Battlefield 4 to include Hardline and sell it for $69.99. Then they could up-sell Battlefield 4 Premium and/or Hardline Premium.
I’m giving away free ideas, EA. Take them.