Wednesday afternoon, EA and Dice revealed that Battlefield 2042 will be delayed until November 19, 2021. This is nearly one month after its initial planned release date of October 22. However, after the developers went quiet surrounding the game’s public beta and marketing in general, fans knew this was a potential outcome.
While that date is now set, there’s still no confirmation on when fans will get access to the public beta. Supposedly, the beta was originally slated to take place in September, but EA and Dice have gone radio silent on that front. Even with today’s delay announcement, we still aren’t sure when the beta is going to take place.
Battlefield 2042 sees a delay
An update from the Battlefield team pic.twitter.com/K53VNM2tTz
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 15, 2021
Reports of a delay began to surface earlier this morning. Noted insider Tom Henderson was the first to report that EA was considering a delay. However, from Henderson’s tweets on the subject, it seems like this was a last-minute decision.
“#BATTLEFIELD2042 Delay Update: To be delayed by several weeks and not months which conflicts with the other rumors, but it’s what I’ve heard. Late Nov 2021 is currently flying around,” Henderson tweeted.
Regardless, EA cited the global pandemic as the main reason behind the delay. In its statement, EA said that the global pandemic “created unforeseen changes for our development teams.”
Those changes mostly revolve around the developers still not being able to come to actual offices to work. Instead, the pandemic has caused the developers to stay at home. As such, Battlefield 2042 isn’t in the place that the developers hoped it would be by now. EA stated that:
“We feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players.”
Obviously, if a delay means the game will be more polished at launch, then it’s in the developer’s best interest to extend its release date. Now, Battlefield 2042’s new release date falls in between Call of Duty: Vanguard and Halo Infinite. This was likely intentional on the part of EA, as it wouldn’t want another game’s launch to overshadow its own.
For now, fans will have to wait until a formal announcement of the public beta. As of right now, the leaks indicate that Sept. 22 is still the likely date, but the delay to Battlefield 2042 could change that.
