Now that some time has passed since Battlefield 4’s launch, EA’s Andrew Wilson and DICE’s Karl-Magnus Troedsson are ready to talk about what exactly went wrong. More importantly, both have committed to ensuring this won’t happen again. Which is a good thing because Battlefield: Hardline launches in a few months.

First and foremost, Wilson, who took over as EA’s CEO in late 2013, called the Battlefield 4 launch “unacceptable.” He claims that the time between developing, testing, and launch wasn’t enough for DICE to iron out the bugs in their game, of which there clearly were a lot.

He also cites the next-gen consoles as a potential factor in the game’s flawed release, as both Sony and Microsoft were constantly shifting their platforms’ specs right up until launch. Now, Wilson wanted to make clear that he isn’t passing the blame over to the PS4 or Xbox One, but rather he is merely pointing out how difficult it is to test a game on hardware that isn’t yet final.

That being said, we’d be quick to point out that Battlefield 4 experienced considerable problems on the PC as well, which flies in the face of Wilson’s claims. If anything the PC should have been the one platform where there were no multiplayer problems, but alas that was not the case.

As far as what those problems were, Wilson and Troedsson claim it was Battlefield 4’s ambition that was its undoing.

That situation, of course, resulted in a huge all hands on deck call within DICE, where the developer halted production on all Battlefield 4 DLC and upcoming projects in order to fix the game. And while it took some time to get there, it appears Battlefield 4 is now in a playable state.

Getting Battlefield 4 to a playable state, however, was only one part of the equation. As DICE has previously revealed, they will continue to support and improve Battlefield 4 for as long as gamers continue to play it. In fact, they just recently launched a new testing program on PC that would give them a more responsive line of communication with their audience.

DICE will even continue to support Battlefield 4 while Battlefield: Hardline, Visceral Games’ new cops and robbers-focused franchise entry, is dominating the conversation. They will also be lending a helping hand on that game’s development, but their focus is BF4 and future projects (Star Wars: Battlefront) at the moment.

Worried fans should know, though, that Visceral has had a full three years to work on Hardline, and Wilson says that lessons learned from Battlefield 4 will help prevent this game from experiencing the same launch day problems.

Wilson concluded his interview with Eurogamer by discussing the rumored annualization of the Battlefield franchise. In the past, DICE has taken their time with Battlefield releases, but with Hardline set to release a year after BF4 many are wondering if EA is looking to change that. Could Battlefield be taking a page out of Call of Duty’s book?

Unfortunately, Wilson does little more than dance around the idea of an annualized Battlefield, but he doesn’t rule out the idea either. However, with DICE’s new Star Wars Battlefront slated to release next year, and Mirror’s Edge some time after that, it’s hard to imagine we would see a proper Battlefield from the studio by the end of 2015. Still, stranger things have happened.

Has Battlefield 4’s “unacceptable” launch soured the franchise for you? Do you think Battlefield could survive as an annual franchise?

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Source: Eurogamer

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