Then of course there are those annoying DDoS attacks and various flavors of litigation being thrown at the franchise. If EA was going for an unprecedented three-peat as worst company in America then this was undoubtedly the way to do it. Unfortunately for fans of the brand, any hope of putting these recent troubles behind them were dashed earlier today, when EA unveiled a last-minute postponement of the game’s Naval Strike add-on for PC.
With just hours to go before BF4 premium members were to receive access to the all-new content (the launch did go ahead on consoles) EA released the following statement:
While no one ever enjoys getting this kind of news, most gamers do understand that postponements are a necessary evil of the industry — sometimes bugs and big ideas just happen, and studios need the time to react and implement accordingly. The problem here isn’t so much that the DLC hit a major snag (but really, following some of the earlier problems this ought to have been expected) but rather that EA only thought to break the news on the day of the pack’s premium member release. For a company trying to dig itself out of a 2 year PR slump these mistakes are not only surprising but completely inexcusable.
In other Battlefield 4 news, EA has released an updated Battlelog detailing the tweaks and fixes applied to the title earlier this week. Scroll down for the full list of changes.
Are you affected by this latest delay? Should EA have admitted to these issues prior to Naval Strike’s stated release date? How has the Battlefield brand been affected by these repeat failures? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to keep up with all of the latest Electronic Arts news, right here on Game Rant.
Battlelog now supports the Naval Strike expansion pack for Battlefield 4. The content will be enabled as the release is rolled out on the various platforms.
The video background has now been enabled by default; you can turn it off for specific computers by going to Settings (don’t worry, we automatically pause the video background when you launch the game)
Carrier Assault will not display scores in Live Scoreboard and BattleScreen; this will be fixed with the next Battlelog update in 2 weeks
FEATURES & IMPROVEMENTS:
Added a new background and video background to celebrate the release of Naval Strike
Added a refresh button to all the Multiplayer pages (except for Play Now), including Favorites and History
15 new ranks have been added to Platoons, so you can now reach rank 25 with your Platoon
Console Rent-a-Server owners (once released for the respective platform) can now upload their server banner image on Battlelog
The Battle Reports dropdown in the header now shows the platform that the round was played on.
You can now see Gadgets on the Unlocks -> Weapons page
You can now see if items are unlocked by Premium or Battlepacks on the Stats -> Weapons and Unlocks -> Weapons pages
You will now see a confirmation prompt when trying to leave a Platoon; for the original founder, the button will now instead say “Disband” and will also see a confirmation prompt when trying to disband the Platoon.
Various pixels pushed for better looks and alignment on the Server Info page
Various minor improvements and tweaks
FIXES:
No longer possible to equip AA mines alongside rocket launchers in Loadout
Fixed an issue where code would be written to chats under some circumstances
Fixed an issue where the new player experience flow would show on every login for some console players
Fixed an issue with Platoon feed sticky posts that weren’t set correctly; the page will now also instantly update to reflect the change
Fixed an issue with the details box on Unlocks -> Vehicles, where it would sometimes overlap the footer
Fixed some emblem shapes default colors, that were shown as black instead of white
Various fixes for the unlock requirements shown in Loadout, which wasn’t always correctly set
Fixed an issue on launching, when using the Tablet Commander app with a non-ranked soldier
Fixed an issue where some emblem shapes weren’t always named correctly when opening Battlepacks
Various pixels pushed on the Missions page to better accomodate for long user names and scores in the nemesis sections
Fixed an issue where the UCAV was listed twice in the list of vehicles for Soldier Equipment
Fixed an issue with the expansion pack icon not showing correctly for items in Loadout, if they had the “cannot equip” style
Various minor fixes
The Battlefield 4: Naval Strike DLC is now available to all BF4 premium members playing on selected home consoles (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One). Regular users can access the content from April 8, 2014. The pack is priced at $15.
EA has yet to offer an updated release date for Naval Strike on PC.
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Source: Battlefield Battlelog, (ii)