Battlefield 5: release date delay, pre-orders and open beta details

Battlefield 5 developer Dice has been forced to delay the release of its latest multiplayer game to 20 November - one month after originally planned.

The Stockholm-based studio was due to launch its new first-person shooter on 15 October, but feedback from gamers who played a pre-released earlier in the summer convinced the developers that more time was needed to tweak the game, The Sun reports.

Oskar Gabrielson, Dice’s general manager, said gamer feedback had “spurred us to make some meaningful improvements to the core gameplay experience”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

These include “adjusting the gameplay tempo”, such as how quickly a multiplayer fight escalates, as well as an improvement to the visibility of other players online.

While the news may come as a blow to fans, the Daily Express says Dice still plans to go ahead with its public beta for Battlefield 5 on 6 September.

This allows gamers to play a pre-release version of the game for free, which helps Dice gather data to improve the shooter before it launches.

“With the open beta just around the corner, we are excited about the millions of you who will join us and experience the game”, said Gabrielson. “And we fully expect to see even more feedback coming our way.”

Announced in a preview trailer in May, Battlefield 5 will be the first game in the series set during the Second World War since 2009’s Battlefield 1943.

Since then, the franchise has focused on modern day combat, with the exception of last year’s Battlefield 1, which is set during the First World War.

When does it come out?

Battlefield 5 launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One X and PC on 20 November.

Where to pre-order it

Pre-orders are open now. Battlefield 5 can be found on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC from £49.99 on Amazon.

Gamers who sign up to EA Access, a £19.99 per year video game subscription service, can also play the shooter once it releases.

What’s new?

Its predecessor in the franchise, Battlefield 1, is set during WWI, but the new title will put players on the front line of WWII.

As well as its new historical setting, Battlefield 5 is brimming with new features and tweaked gameplay elements.

Polygon says that gamers will be given more freedom to customise the characters they use online by altering their gender, race, facial features and hair. For the first time, gamers will be able to unlock more outfits and items as they progress through the game.

Characters are split into four different classes – assault, engineer, support and medic – which all have their own strengths and weaknesses on the battlefield, the tech site says. In addition, gamers get their own “personal motor pool and airstrip”, where war vehicles can be customised with different paint and stickers.

Meanwhile, Battlefield 5 will introduce two major new game modes called Grand Operations and Tides of War, The Verge says.

Grand Operations is a large-scale “historically inspired” multiplayer match that’s split into four sections, the website says. The first section revolves around players working together to capture the city of Rotterdam, while the final phase forces gamers to fight others using weapons they find on the battlefield.

Tides of War is a story-driven multiplayer mode that puts gamers through various stages of WWII, says Tech Radar.

The new title will also include a single player offline gameplay, called War Stories, as well as a mode that allows gamers to team up with friends in order to complete multiplayer objectives, the site says.

What about downloadable content?

In a move to “avoid segregation” between gamers who purchase downloadable items and gamers who don’t, The Daily Telegraph says that all Battlefield 5’s major updates will be free to download.

But the paper says there will undoubtedly be “some form of monetisation” in the game. This could take the form of purchasable items for the game’s character customisation.

Will there be a beta?

Yes. According to Games Radar, players who pre-order the game will automatically be entered into Dice’s beta programme. This will give gamers access to a pre-launch version of Battlefield 5 on 4 September. For those that haven’t pre-ordered, the beta period begins on 6 September.

Given that beta versions are not the finished product, those who play Battlefield 5 early may experience some technical glitches and missing features.