14 DAY TRIAL // Stern Agee, an analyst firm which offers information on the evolution of the gaming industry, believes that developer DICE and publisher Electronic Arts will be launching Battlefield 5 at some point in 2016, rather than aiming to deliver it next year.
The company is not saying whether it has access to any internal information about the game or it is simply speculating based on publicly available data.
The prediction is somewhat weird given that neither DICE nor Electronic Arts have talked about Battlefield 5 in any official manner and the two companies have other big projects that they are currently working on.
Stern Agee says that at the moment the franchise is in trouble because of the issues that the current installment has had since it was launched, according to IGN.
Apparently, Electronic Arts aims to avoid franchise fatigue and will only launch one Battlefield title, the already delayed Hardline, in 2015, on the PC, the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 and current-gen consoles.
The game was initially supposed to be offered in the fall, in order to compete with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but was pushed back because of some quality concerns that appeared during the beta period.
The analysts also believe that EA wants to put a bigger emphasis on another DICE project, Star Wars Battlefront.
The company said that it was aiming to deliver it to fans of the universe at some point during the summer of next year, but the delay of Hardline might also affect it.
Battlefield 4 still needs to be improved
At the moment, DICE has publicly stated that it is entirely focused on making sure that Battlefield 4 delivers the best possible experience to its fan base.
A Premium Edition version of the shooter, which includes all the downloadable content launched so far, is also set to be offered and gamers will get access to The Final Stand, which introduces new weapons and vehicles and moves the action to the Arctic, before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, DICE is also continuing to work on patches, which are based on the information offered by those players who have signed up to the Community Test Environment.
Battlefield Hardline is a spin-off for the series which focuses on the conflict between law enforcement agencies and powerful criminal cartels.
Developer Visceral Games has said that it will introduce more variety and that it plans to have a second beta soon to test out some of the re-designed core mechanics.