Battlefield Doesn’t Need to Stick to a Yearly Release Schedule, Says EA Games

Electronic Arts is slowing down the release of its Battlefield franchise, extending its development cycle (up from its yearly release cycle) for the sake of creating better games in the long-running military series that don’t fall victim to the weight of their marketing hype while failing to deliver in terms of quality. 

Speaking to investors and the press, EA Executive VP Patrick Soderlund said that delaying the release of Battlefield Hardline wouldn’t have an impact on the schedule of Battlefield releases, as the company doesn’t think it needs to stick to a yearly release schedule.

“For Battlefield, I think it’s important to put out the right product at the right time,” Soderlund said (via GameFront). “Does that mean we have to ship a Battlefield game every year? In some years that may be the case, in some years it may not. We don’t need to have a Battlefield game every year. In this case, we chose quality first, and I think ultimately that’s where we’re going to be successful.”

Early today, EA announced that Battlefield Hardline would be delayed to early 2015 instead of launching in October, as previously announced. Also delayed is Dragon Age: Inquisition, which has been pushed back to a November 2014 release.

Regardless of what Electronic Arts does, their games will remain subject to the endless scrutiny of gamers, so they might as well develop and release polished titles instead of half-baked messes like Battlefield 4.