‘Battlefield Hardline’ Beta Bests ‘Destiny’ Beta With More Than 6 Million Players
Battlefield Hardline has been a contentious addition to the Battlefield franchise, but the number of players who have tried the beta on the PC plus PlayStation and Xbox consoles has been overwhelming. More gamers participated in the Hardline beta test than the Destiny beta test last summer.
Visceral Games Vice President Steve Papoutsis announced in an EA Blog post Sunday that more than six million people participated in the Battlefield Hardline beta. The executive said that the game studio was “thrilled” at the number of people who tried the game and that they “appreciate the response and feedback we have gotten from you in the forums, on social media and while playing with you online.”
Quick beta update: http://t.co/Lo7uVbpMjZ Thanks to the 6 million #BFHardline players. You got 1 more day to send feedback. Make it count.
— Steve Papoutsis (@leveluptime) February 9, 2015
The Battlefield Hardline beta began on Tuesday, February 3 and was set to end on Sunday. Visceral extended the game’s availability until Monday night, February 9. It officially ends at midnight ET / 9 p.m. PT. Papoutsis stated that Visceral is already prioritizing changes to Battlefield Hardline based on feedback from the beta. Changes to shotguns and tripwires have been mentioned by the developer elsewhere, but they are opening a feedback Q&A session on Twitter on Tuesday.
Live #HardlineBeta Feedback Twitter Q&A tomorrow 3pm PT w/ Lead MP Designer @dirtydeathdog. What changes do you want to see for launch? — Battlefield (@Battlefield) February 9, 2015
For comparison, Activision boasted that the Destiny beta was the largest for a new console game with more than 4.6 million participants in July 2014. The Hardline beta undoubtedly benefitted from many more PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in gamer’s hands plus the availability of the game on the PC. The two consoles added approximately 10-12 million new units between them in the fourth quarter of 2014 alone (6.6 million for the PS4, approximately five million for the Xbox One).
Still, more than six million players in a beta is impressive. More impressive is that there have been few if any performance or server hiccups with the Battlefield Hardline beta. That is promising for the full launch of the game on March 17. Its predecessor, Battlefield 4, suffered from a disastrous launch that rendered the game unplayable for nearly two months.
“We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the community one more time,} Papoutsis wrote. “We love the two way dialogue we’ve established. And now that you’ve driven millions of miles in Hotwire, you’ve stolen billions of dollars in Heist, and you’ve continued to show mad love for Conquest, we can’t wait until you get a chance to play the whole package. We have seven multiplayer modes, nine diverse maps and a full single player campaign that’s like nothing Battlefield has ever seen before.”
How have you enjoyed the Battlefield Hardline beta? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Battlefield]
