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Hardline and Dragon Age delayed, EA’s profits up

There will be no Battlefield game this year: EA announced last night in their latest quarterly earnings report that their new cops ‘n robbers shooter/heist game, Hardline, won’t see the light of day until 2015.

Dragon Age: Inquisition has also been delayed, but only by a month: It will now launch on November 21st rather than October 7th, 2014.

That’s not the greatest news in the world, but the reasons behind the delays are at least admirable: Polygon has reported that the Hardline team wants to spend more time developing it to ultimately make Hardline a better game; the same goes for the Dragon Age team.

Hardline’s beta launched seconds after the announcement of its existence at E3 earlier this year, and apparently the developers have been going over the data and feedback generated with a fine tooth comb to see what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly what players think about it and want from the game.

More time needed

Based on that feedback, the developers were inspired with a slew of new ideas on ways to make Hardline better, something that they felt couldn’t be done with just a few months. Karl Magnus Troedsson, DICE vice president and group GM said to Polygon “The more we thought about these ideas, the more we knew we had to get them into the game you will all be playing. However, there was only one problem. We would need more time. Time that we didn’t have if we decided to move forward with launching in just a couple of months.”

Troedsson went on to say that the teams want to focus on improving the multiplayer portion of the game in a way “that will evolve the cops and criminals fantasy into a truly unique Battlefield Multiplayer experience.”

The single-player and general stability of the game won’t be forgotten, either. Troedsson said that DICE has learned a lot from feedback on Battlefield 4, and is working hard to ensure similar issues don’t plague Hardline.

A blessing in disguise?

With game releases ramping up in number and quality between now and the end of the year, having fewer big games contending for your gaming budget could actually be a bit of a blessing in disguise.

For those disappointed by the news of Hardline’s delay, console yourself with the following: by the time you’ve worked your way through the new Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny and many other high-profile releases, you’ll be ready for Hardline, which will be out in “early 2015”.

EA’s profits are up. Way up.

Delay news aside, the earnings report painted a pretty good picture of EA’s finances: the company’s profits are up 51% for the April to June quarter, boosted by new console sales and Xbox One exclusive Titanfall, which has apparently done pretty well for the company. Battlefield 4, FIFA 14 and UFC were also mentioned as good money-spinners.

[Source – Polygon]

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