As we have all heard, the upcoming Battlefield V has been delayed all the way up to late November. While the reasoning behind the delay is chalked up to core gameplay and live service tweaks, many thought that the worst that would happen would be an additional three-week wait. However, it turns out that things ended up being little more severe, for EA’s stock dropped 8% as a result of Battlefield V‘s delay.
Luckily for Battlefield V, it will still be released within the ever important Holiday season, where a large portion of game sales tend to happen. Except, things are still not all that simple. Despite the still decent timing, Battlefield V will now have to compete with the slew of other AAA titles that release around this time frame. Battlefield V will now release after Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, Red Dead Redemption 2, Hitman 2, and Fallout 76, as stated in our previous coverage of the topic.
With this delay, we might get better servers, more refined gameplay, and maybe even a better overall quality product that will ultimately leave a better impression on us initially, but the financial toll that EA is expected to take is estimated at around $235 million. This financial hit will come from a loss in physical and digital sales, as well as service sales. In an era where the buying power of video game consumers steadily becomes stronger, Battlefield V releasing relatively late into this year’s Holiday season game will be missing out some initial season purchases. With dollars already spent on other AAA titles and microtransaction, Battlefield V will be missing out on a nice piece of the sales pie.
While these sales hits might not directly correlate to poor reception of the game, many are expecting sub-par experience with Battlefield V, especially from the controversial addition of the Battle Royale mode, as well as some backlash from the community over its depiction of its characters. However, we will just have to wait and see if this delay will do anything at all for the reception and sale of the game.
Battlefield V will now release on November 20 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The open beta for Battlefield V has been unaffected by this delay, and it will still proceed with its original September 6 start date.