This time around, EA and DICE are doing away with Battlefield Premium Passes, opting to make all Battlefield V post-launch content free. The team has mapped out the first three months of their ongoing updates, which will be known as Tides of War. Everything was supposed to kick off today (December 4, 2018), starting with Tides of War Chapter 1: Overture. But right before launch, a technical issue was discovered that prevented the team from releasing the update. It’s delayed until further notice.
The team has discovered an issue with the #Battlefield Chapter 1: Overture update. Rather than create issues in the game, we’re holding the update for the time being. We don’t anticipate a long delay and we’ll be back with more news tomorrow or as soon as we have it. pic.twitter.com/bc6xlWPc8e
— #Battlefield V (@Battlefield) December 3, 2018
While it’s discouraging for things to start with a delay, as oxymoronic as that sounds, the fact that EA and DICE were promoting the release of Chapter 1 hours before the delay shows the team had every intention of releasing this on time. The two companies were blindsided by a new issue, rather than just falling behind schedule. We’ve seen content updates create new issues in games before and, considering how much is going into this update, it makes sense that the team wants to proceed with caution.
The only other option they had was to release the update and fix the problems while forcing players to experience them first-hand. Neither move makes the team look good, but hopefully the delay creates less frustration than in-game issues would.
Battlefield V‘s Tides of War: Chapter 1 Overture update will include The Last Tiger War Story, a new multiplayer map, additional vehicle customization options, and the start of weekly events and rewards.
[Source: Twitter]