By the time Battlefield 4 launches for current-generation hardware and PC, thousands of players will have tested the massive FPS through both the alpha and the beta that developer DICE has been running. This extended testing process has squashed some big bugs, but that doesn’t mean that the game’s first week will be perfect. Executive producer Patrick Bach expects this to be the smoothest launch of the series, yet understands that the sheer scope of the experience will cause issues.
"We have been changing a lot of things under the hood in the game, which are quite hard to see at a glance – when you're playing the game you'll feel the benefits, but you might not understand what we've gone through to get there,” Bach told OXM in a recent interview. “Sometimes you have to more or less pull out the whole engine to get +10 horsepower. You can't just keep 'boosting' your game to get there."
DICE is said to be pushing next-generation hardware to its limits, which is something not often seen at the launch of a new console cycle.
"And with that comes, of course, bugs," Bach continued. "If we'd wanted to play it safe, we wouldn't have created a new version of Frostbite – we would have stayed on the right side of the fence. We are trying to push things as far as possible. That doesn't mean you will have loads and loads of bugs, of course."
Look to pick up Battlefield 4 on current-gen platforms Oct. 29, and next-gen machines at their launch.