Battlefield 2042 has been delayed — the rumours were true. EA has announced that the next Battlefield game has been pushed back nearly a month, from October 22 to November 19, owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has delayed the return of its development staff to offices. While EA DICE and its co-developers had expected a return to their studios as they neared launch, the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 hasn’t allowed that to happen. The Battlefield 2042 team isn’t the only one affected by this, with companies such as Apple and Facebook also delaying a return to office due to the Delta variant in the past few weeks.
“We’ve made the decision to shift the launch of Battlefield 2042. The game will now be released worldwide on November 19th, 2021,” EA DICE CEO Oskar Gabrielson said in a prepared statement on Twitter. “Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams. Given the scale and scope of the game, we had hoped our team would be back in our studios together as we move towards launch. With the ongoing conditions not allowing that to happen safely, and with all the hard work the teams are doing from home, we feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players.”
The statement, also attributed to the Battlefield 2042 development team — that consists of EA DICE, Criterion Games, Ripple Effect, and EA Gothenburg — closed out with a promise of updates on the Battlefield 2042 open beta “later” in September. It added: “Your enthusiasm for the game has been very inspiring. We believe in the game we’re making, and we thank you for your patience as we put some finishing touches into the experience.”
Following this near-monthlong delay, Battlefield 2042 will now release two weeks after Call of Duty: Vanguard, its competition from Activision-owned Sledgehammer Games, the makers of 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII. Originally, Battlefield 2042 was set to launch two weeks prior to Call of Duty: Vanguard. Now, Battlefield 2042 releases two-and-a-half weeks ahead of the other first-person shooter Halo Infinite, an Xbox and Windows 10 exclusive. But unlike both Vanguard and Halo Infinite, Battlefield 2042 is all-multiplayer. Also, Infinite’s multiplayer is free-to-play.
Battlefield 2042 is out November 19 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. It costs Rs. 2,999 on Origin, Steam and Epic Games (for PC), Rs. 3,999 on PS4 and Xbox One, and Rs. 4,499 on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. Battlefield 2042 will also be available with the EA Play Pro subscription on PC on day one.