Battlefield Hardline: What Visceral took from Battlefield 4’s Poor Launch

DICE's Battlefield 4 got off to such a rocky start that Dead Space developer Visceral, have publicly pledged that the next entry in the franchise, the one they're creating, will work at launch. 

But what has the Battlefield Hardline team actually learned from the experience? Speaking to Eurogamer, Visceral's general manager Steve Papoutsis commented "When you ask what did I learn, or what did we learn, all game developers know it's important to launch a stable game, a bug free game, because that equates to fun. It's unfortunate that Battlefield 4 had a rocky launch, and a lot of effort's gone into rectifying that.

"We at our studio pride ourselves in doing our best – as do many, or all developers – to release bug-free software that works. But these games are complex, and when you're working on five platforms simultaneously it is a challenge. What's resonated with us is we need to keep an eye on it."

Papoutsis continued by pointing to the game's beta at E3 to ensure the shooter will have stable multiplayer upon release. While he admits it was "scary" hitting the switch to begin the beta, he believes most players found their experience to be a steady one.

While beta feedback was generally positive, it convinced the team that they need more time and EA agreed to allow the game's release date to be moved from this month to March, 2015. 

"We wounded up getting a tonne of feedback which was really good. We expected people to respond differently. Once we had that list, we didn't want to go to all that effort and not do anything with it. We talked to Andrew Wilson (EA's CEO) and the exec team, and said we've got all this great feedback. We want to put players first, this is something that EA's committed to doing now," Popoutsis remarked. 

Wilson agreed that the Visceral team needed more time to incorporate the advice of the beta's players, and so Hardline was pushed back. 

Battlefield Hardline is coming to PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on March 17th, 2015.