Visceral remaining ‘vigilant’ ahead of Battlefield Hardline launch

Visceral remaining ‘vigilant’ ahead of Battlefield Hardline launch
David Scammell Updated on by

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Visceral Games is remaining “vigilant” ahead of next week’s launch of Battlefield Hardline, as it takes steps to ensure the game doesn’t suffer from the same issues that plagued Battlefield 4’s launch.

“Nervous isn’t the right word but there’s a sort of tense anticipation,” creative director Ian Milham told VideoGamer.com earlier this week while describing the current mood at the studio.

“These days, creating the game itself is only half the battle. Getting it safely and functionally into players’ hands is a giant deal. And not just EA, but kind of the whole games industry lately has had some challenges in that regard. So we’ll relax when it’s totally going.”

Milham believes that Visceral has “taken every possible measure you can possibly take” to ensure the game rolls out smoothly, though.

“Our beta went really smooth. We rolled it out to millions. They all got to play simultaneously. We rolled out a patch just to try it – we didn’t even need to patch it, we just did it to practice patching and get everything tight. It’s passed every test we’ve ever thrown at it and it’s looking really stable and good, but you have to stay vigilant. I think the mood right now is vigilant.”

Battlefield 4 launched to numerous issues when it released on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in late 2013, particularly with the game’s multiplayer, which saw some players disconnected from matches and unable to join games.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson later described the game’s launch issues as “unacceptable”, stating that the company had changed its development timelines and processes “with a view to not have the issues again”.

A 10-hour trial of Battlefield Hardline rolled out to Xbox One EA Access members earlier today.