Battlefield Hardline is now coming in early 2015, while Dragon Age: Inquisition has moved to November 18.

DICE VP Karl Magnus Troedsson published a surprisingly lengthy blog explaining the delay, citing feedback from the recent beta for the Visceral Games-developed spin-off. The studio also outlined what it hopes to address with the additional development time:

"1. Multiplayer Innovation: Coming out of our E3 beta, internal focus tests, and work with our community, we have received a lot of great Multiplayer thinking. We’re going to be adding some new feature ideas direct from the community that will evolve the cops and criminals fantasy into a truly unique Battlefield Multiplayer experience.

2. Single Player Story Depth: In order to ensure our Single Player experience delivers on player expectations, we’re spending more time polishing our core features, as well as adding a few new ones that will support a deeper “crime revenge” story experience.

3. Stability: This has been a focus for our team since day one and we’re going to be using the extra time to continue to optimize the game for a stable launch. We have learned a lot from Battlefield 4, are continuing to learn from our Community Test Environment and will learn more from another Hardline beta. More time allows us to surface issues that the team can attempt to fix prior to launch."

It's unclear when Battlefield Hardline will actually be released, but prior to the end of March is a good bet.

Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah was much less specific in talking about today's other delay, sticking to the tried-and-true explanation that even a few weeks will help with additional polish. Dragon Age: Inquisition had been set for release on October 7, which means it's not a particularly substantial change.

"I’m privileged to be a part of a team that has been working very hard to surpass every measure they’ve set for themselves. That has meant completing huge amounts of game content, fixing bugs both big and small, and improving the overall experience. This last bit of time is about polishing the experience we want you to see. Ensuring that our open spaces are as engaging as possible. Strengthening the emotional impact of the Hero's choices. And ensuring the experience you get is the best it can be in the platform you choose to play on."

To be honest, I'm not particularly upset there's one less game to play in October. It's already packed!

Dragon again?!?! But we had that last night!

what the h is dragon again

@enochulator: I laughed.

Good for the Battlefield delay, hopefully they'll actually spend time to differentiate it from Battlefield 4. The month delay on Dragon Age isn't too big of a deal, though I am excited for that game; hopefully for the team it'll mean shorter crunch time on the game, but somehow I doubt it.

Hopefully this is good news, with all the EA hate lately hopefully these delays will give the teams time to polish and optimize, Hardline and Inquisition both look pretty cool.

I wasn't all that worried about Dragon Age 3 before, and now I am.

:/

more sims 4 time

Hehe, "Again" should obviously be "Age." I'm sure it'll be fixed quickly. The last sentence is also formatted within the block quote when it should be outside.
At any rate, yeah, no real surprises here. I was always skeptical of the October release for DA, and I won't be surprised if it's delayed again.

What was the written on, an iPad? Lol, autocorrect age to again...

Again?

Jeez, you won the thread at the very beginning.

Wasn't Battlefield: Hardline specifically supposed to come out in 2014 so that they could have a BF title out before Battlefront comes out next year? Something tells me Battlefront isn't coming out next year anymore.

More like Drag-in-on (an) Age, amirite?

Thank you! I'd rather have them take the time to get things right instead of releasing half finished products. I played the Hardline beta and it was abysmal in comparison to BF4, which I acknowledge had/has plenty of its own issues.

No delay for Dragon Age will annoy me after the rush DA2 got. Take all the time needed.

Delays are good.

That sounds alright with me. Maybe I'll actually get Hardline at this point.

I laughed on the inside

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I was really hyped for Dragon Age on my birthday.

The Hardline delay is surprising but the up front and candid way they addressed some of the concerns for the game seems like a smart correction to a lot of the anger following Battlefield 4.

@smcn: Yeaahh but... Mass 3 was delayed and I want to say Dragon Age 2 was delayed as well. I'm not saying that DA3 will be bad, but considering BioWare's recent track record I have to say that delays from them is starting to become a bad omen.

I can't remember if it was delayed but Dragon Age 2 was forced out in a year, and even with it's obvious problems I think they managed pretty well for that sort of crunch. With a proper development time and now extra time for polish I'm not all that worried.

I thought ME3 turned out great so I guess nothing to add there.

I wonder i we might get surprised by Hardline. I completely understand the criticisms (namely that is feels more like a mod than a full price title), but it was a real beta. Not a fake beta just to drive up sales. They are actively using it to iron out bugs, get proper feedback, and improve the end product. That is encouraging.

@efesell said:

Oh dude don't misunderstand; I am completely empathetic to BioWare's position in regards to DA2. Once it came to light how badly they got shafted, I came to appreciate just how much they could get done in 10 months. They managed to create a 30 hour RPG in a year. That's fucking insane.

ME3 was great, but there were clearly chunks of stuff missing. It took almost a year of DLC to get it to the point where it felt whole. I'm really hoping that EA hasn't hobbled BioWare this time because, man, I really love that studio and the way they make games.

Also none of the issues that people had with DA2 or ME3 had anything to do with something that might have cropped up at the last moment. Delays are only a bad omen if it's because they release games that are a buggy mess and full technical issues. Fundamental design decisions don't change in the last month before a launch.

Nooo! I've already booked my vacation the week of the old release date for Dragon Age. Son of a...!

I don't know, I recently replayed ME3 after picking up all the DLC for the first time and I felt like people greatly exaggerated how necessary it was to the experience. (Leviathan didn't add nearly as much to the story as people claimed.) Citadel was easily the best DLC, but it was just another wacky adventure to go on. Even the extended cut ending felt pretty superfluous. Almost all the best parts of ME3 were in there from the start.

@oldirtybearon: Dragon Age: Origins was delayed for fucking ever. Announced in 2004 and released in 2009. To put it in perspective, it was in development years before Bioware was a part of EA.

Those delays definitely led to a fantastic product, though, even if the final product looked nothing like the original vision of the game.

Kinda bummed out about Dragon Age. Really looking forward to playing it. It's just a month, though, so not really a big deal.

@zeik: Without derailing the thread I'm just going to say that I respectfully disagree with you.

Damn, that long? The earliest trailer I found for Dragon Age was an E3 trailer from 2006. And even then it was just a short video of what ultimately became the box art (dude standing in a field of bodies).

Weird aside, but you wouldn't happen to know what kind of game Dragon Age was supposed to be, would you? You make it sound like it wasn't always a party based cRPG and now I'm curious.

Hardline seemed pretty half baked, judging from the beta, but does that mean 2 Battlefields in 2015? Or are they going to stick to no yearly Battlefields and release Battlefront in the fall? The delay kind of upsets the order.

The guys at monolith must be ecstatic

Now that it's so far removed, Inquisition is the popular keyword, and Bioware's site has gone through such drastic changes, I'm finding it difficult to scrounge up the early concept art and screenshots from the game. It was supposed to be a party-based cRPG, but one more in line with their previous work on Baldur's Gate (a return from the more multiplayer focused Neverwinter Nights), and I would argue that while Origins still managed to hold on to those cRPG roots, the path it took - and its sequels have/appear to be taking in increasing amounts - made it more of a console RPG.

As someone who followed the original game from the barest rumors of its existence, it felt to me like for awhile the game was pretty much what Half-Life 3 is now (never going to actually be released), and the final product was nothing like what was shown/talked about and yet, I reiterate, was still downright awesome in its own regard.

Here's at least one early screenshot, complete with IGN logo, I guess.

Thank you for reminding me of this this game! I still have it and must finish it!

Hardline coming out next year actually might convince me to get it.

@draugen said:

I think you have a fever, you should call in sick during November for your health.

Was that actually the amount of time they had for DA 2? That explains a lot.

Good for Dragon Age, they get out of the death slot that is October 2014.

Until every other game coming out in October gets pushed into 2015.

Awesome. I love Battlefield. I'm all for them taking all the time they need to get it stable, and hopefully turn it into something relatively unique. I want actual heists, not just Obliteration mixed with Rush with money instead of a bomb.

(500th post. Woo!)

At least October wont be as packed

The way they capitalize "Multiplayer," "Single Player," and "Hero" as proper nouns really comes across as weird to me.

October is pretty packed, and Dragon Age is already a bit of an iffy proposition with many people so I bet this is more about being on an more open release date, so they don't have to compete with a whole bunch of other games, probably think that if people have more money/less to play they will be more likely to grab it if they were on the fence.

Given Electronic Arts' penchant of horribly rushing games and turning potential hits into miserable gimped messes this is probably the best news this Battlefield 4 mod and this game could have gotten.

And nothing of value was lost.

Good. Unless Shadow of Mordor is unexpectedly great, this means I can relegate October to more backlog smashing.

Will any developer ever just say "So the original release date is jam packed with other games, so no one will buy our game, so we're just gonna shift it a little."? I'd at least respect their honesty. Stuff like Watch Dogs being delayed due to clashing with Black Flag, but Ubisoft saying it was for polish, and then the game coming out and not being very polished, is what irks me.

@splodge said:

I wonder i we might get surprised by Hardline. I completely understand the criticisms (namely that is feels more like a mod than a full price title), but it was a real beta. Not a fake beta just to drive up sales. They are actively using it to iron out bugs, get proper feedback, and improve the end product. That is encouraging.

@razielcuts said:

More like Drag-in-on (an) Age, amirite?

He's got some true snap back action going on right there.

I probably would have never picked up Battlefield: Hardline, but now with the delay I might if it comes out at a time when there are not many other games.