As expected, the first beta for the upcoming Battlefield 4 is about to arrive. However, some feel that compared to the previous years, the beta for Battlefield 4 is arriving a bit late this time around, with hardly a month left before the release of the game. But developer DICE has argued that the company still has time to make changes in the final game – based on feedback garnered via the beta.
"Even if we're doing [a beta] quite late, we still have the opportunity to do some tweaks," executive producer Patrick Bach told Gamespot in a recent interview. "And of course we want to get feedback not only from the beta, but also from game when it's out on the market. We have a history of following up with the game for months and months after it's been released. So to us, it's an ongoing service."
On a similar note, Bach also acknowledged the fact that since next generation consoles such as Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are not arriving before November and that DICE won’t be able to hold a beta testing period for these platforms, it will be “a less-than-optimal scenario” for the team.
He also confirmed that some of the general feedback obtained from the current-generation console and PC betas can be further carried forward to the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Battlefield 4.
"That's of course a problem that we cannot solve," Bach said. "We wish people had the next-gen consoles earlier because then they could participate in the beta as well. But in general, we are collecting feedback from both the current-gen consoles and the PC beta and applying all that data and information onto the next-gen consoles."
Bach also went on to reveal that game updates for the Xbox One and PS4 versions can be downloaded automatically “while the systems are in low-power states, if users enable this setting. ‘We can just push it out to them,’ he said.”
Battlefield 4 is scheduled to release for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on Oct. 29 in North America and Nov. 1 in Europe, with versions for PS4 and Xbox One arriving in Q4 2013.
