One of the things associated with the downfall of the Battlefield series- once highly regarded and considered to be one of the most thrilling FPS series on the market- was EA’s insistence on ensuring that there would be one on the market every year, leading to rushed development schedules and the kind of disastrous launches that we saw last year with the launch of Battlefield 4.
With another game due out this year, most people had probably resigned themselves to Battlefield becoming an annual series. Well, not so fast, says EA. Contrary to all evidence, they promise that Battlefield won’t necessarily be annualized.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to annualize Battlefield and that’s the way it’s going to be forever and ever. I understand that some people may look at it that way but that’s what happened,” But EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Söderlund said to Polygon.
He then talked more about Battlefield Hardline specifically.
“The idea of a cops and robbers type Battlefield game has been with us — me and the DICE team — for more than ten years. There are early prototypes from, like, 2000 or 2001 of a game that we called back then Urban Combat. This has been lingering and we’ve been wanting to do something like this.”
He also promised that the mistakes of Battlefield 4 will not be repeated.
“We still have things to make Battlefield 4 better. Everything that we’ve fixed with Battlefield 4 will go into Hardline,” he said.
Yeah, EA. You like talking the talk a whole lot, but can you walk the walk? All of this, that you just said? I’ll believe it when I see it.