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:
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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.
You have told us that you are seeing an increased focus on squad play come through, you are also feeling the difference in our revamped player movement and we are getting a lot of positive feedback for our improved weapons handling.
You’ve also spurred us to make some meaningful improvements to the core gameplay experience, including adjusting the gameplay tempo, improving soldier visibility and reducing player friction. You’ll see a lot of these reflected in our Open Beta that starts on September 6.
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.
And that’s why we’re moving our launch date. We’re going to take the time to continue to make some final adjustments to core gameplay, and to ensure we really deliver on the potential of Tides of War.
We know moving the launch date means that we all have to wait a little longer. But we’re going to take our time to make sure we get it right.
Thank you for your continued passion and support. We can’t wait to see you on the battlefield in just a few days.
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