Battlefield 4 dev considered delaying PS4, Xbox One versions

DICE has revealed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Battlefield 4 were almost delayed.

Speaking with GI.biz, Patrick Bach, DICE’s Executive Producer, said that the studio has been ‘aggressive’ developing the next installment in its military shooter franchise, though admitted it came close to pushing the release back.

“Well we've been very aggressive with Battlefield 4 in that we want to be out at launch with the next gen consoles,” he said. “I think people might not grasp how hard that is, to develop a game at the same time as the hardware.

“We've been struggling quite a lot to keep up with the changes we've seen – both sides need to adapt and you end up being late. Everything is very complicated. Battlefield itself is a really complicated game, so it doesn't make our lives any easier.

“So we knew we'd set ourselves a tough challenge, but people on the outside seem to think that because there are going to be launch titles, it's easy. What are we spending all our time doing? They don't understand how hard it is!

“Talking about Watch Dogs, I don't blame them, there are times when we've considered doing the same thing – luckily we've overcome those hurdles and thought about what the game actually is on the next gen. We've had an excellent team working that out at the same time as the game itself, which is a big struggle.

“We can see that a lot of the next gen games coming are, arguably, lesser when it comes to the scope of features because of this problem.”

Battlefield 4 is due out on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 in the U.S. on October 29 and in Europe on November 1. The PS4 and Xbox One versions arrive in late November.