When EA (prematurely) announced Battlefield: Hardline earlier this week, there was instant suspicion in some quarters that a release this fall might be optimistic, that we might end up in a situation similar to Battlefield 4, when the game was shipped a little too early.
DICE is still cleaning up the mess after the launch of their game last year, and in an open letter to all Battlefield fans, Karl Magnus Troedsson promised that the studio would continue to support Battlefield 4 in the months before and after the release of Hardline, and explained how he and his team have been working with Visceral on the new strand in the series for some time now.
"I've been working with Visceral GM Steve Papoutsis and his team for several years on the cops vs. criminals concept and we think you guys are going to love it!"
He then went on to say: "I want to be sure you all understand that introducing Hardline in no way means we're done working on Battlefield 4. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Visceral team is leading the development of Hardline, while the DICE team continues to drive BF4."
"The games we develop are services," Troedsson continued. "We focus on taking care of the games post launch, delivering new content to those of you who want it and always working hard to increase quality of play. We also continue to work hard to keep investing in areas where you tell us you see opportunities for improvements and new features. Yes, we're very excited to partner with Visceral on the development of Battlefield Hardline, but ongoing work to refine and enhance BF4 remains a top priority."
Continued Support: There are dedicated BF4 teams in Stockholm, Uppsala and LA that will continue to address any issues that might occur. But more importantly will also look to make significant additions to the game.
Netcode Patch: We are also working on a major update to the Battlefield 4 netcode.
Community Test Environment: We launched and are planning to expand our Community Test Environment. You can see the CTE as our labs environment in which we'll continue testing out new additions, improvements etc. before we go live with them. We're expanding the CTE program to give more and more players the chance to test new additions.
More Features: Other features rolled out recently such as Squad Join, Rent-A-Server and Loadout Presets, many which have been directly requested by you in the community. This trend will continue.