14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Electronic Arts might have confirmed Battlefield Hardline for an autumn release, but the company says that long-term fans of the first-person shooter franchise should not interpret this as a move towards a yearly launch schedule for the franchise.
Patrick Soderlund, the executive vice president of EA Studios and one of the leaders of developer DICE, tells Polygon that his company is only aiming to deliver video games that can offer a high quality experience to players.
Hardline might be timed to arrive just before the rival Call of Duty franchise launches its upcoming installment, Advanced Warfare, but that does not mean that a Battlefield title will also be offered in the fall of 2015.
The executive states, “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.”
Apparently, the concept for Hardline has been in development at DICE for a long time and this is the year when the company has access to the resources it needs to actually make the concept a reality because it got to work with Visceral Games.
Soderlund adds, “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.”
Hardline is designed to offer a more intimate experience in multiplayer than Battlefield 4, with a series of maps that will allow gamers to get up close and personal with their enemies and with modes that are designed to increase the pace of the entire shooter experience.
The single player of the coming title will focus on the struggle between law enforcement forces and criminal cartels and it seems that Visceral Games is aiming to create a narrative about the difference between actual justice and the results that the court system delivers.
The developers are also saying that the new game universe gives them more space to innovative when it comes to the core gameplay.
Battlefield: Hardline is set to be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft and current-gen consoles on October 21 of this year.