The crowded fall season didn't necessarily get any less crowded, but the month that is oftentimes referred to as "Broktober" will definitely have one less AAA game. Yes, Electronic Arts and DICE have decided to pull a strategic and evasive maneuver when it comes to releasing Battlefield V for home consoles and PC. In a striking move, the publisher announced that you will no longer be able to purchase Battlefield V this October, when it was originally scheduled to launch, sandwiched in between the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and one of the most highly anticipated games of the generation, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2.
Over on the official EA website there's a post explaining, in no uncertain terms, that the World War 2 shooter has been delayed to November 20th, 2018 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
Originally the game was supposed to launch on October 19th, 2018, an entire month earlier. This would have put the launch right in between Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, _which is due out on October 12th, 2018, and _Red Dead Redemption 2, which is due out on October 26th, 2018.
Analysts reported that pre-order sales for Battlefield V were drastically smaller than Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, with an 85% difference between the two, according to Segment Next. Typically, it looked like the game was tracking to have a rather abysmal launch, especially if more people were interested in Black Ops 4, we can only imagine that even more people would have been interested in purchasing Red Dead Redemption 2.
However, the reason for the delay, according to EA, is so that the developers can focus more on what gamers want. In the post on the official website, it states that the delay is so that DICE can focus on giving gamers a more squad-play focused first-person shooter experience, and letting the team focus on revamped player movement and improved weapon handling, as well.
DICE noted that, based on feedback, the gameplay engineers will be working on tweaking and adjusting the gameplay tempo in Battlefield V, as well as improving the soldier visibility and reducing player friction.
Additionally, these tweaks and modifications will be based on whatever feedback is gathered up from the open beta for the game that's set to take place next week, on September 6th.
Anyone who was remotely interested in Battlefield V will be able to dive into the open beta and play-test the multiplayer portion of the game for themselves. Whether or not this will increase the likelihood of the game seeming more enticing to gamers looking to purchase a World War 2 title this fall remains to be seen, but EA and DICE are definitely trying to win back the favor of gamers.
The full launch will come with a number of different modes, including the single-player War Stories, which is a carryover from Battlefield 1, and the all new Battle Royale mode that aims to lure in some of the crowd from Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The game will also introduce the live-service mode called Tides of War. You can look for Battlefield V to launch later in the fall, starting November 20th.
