[UPDATE: A partial BF4 Xbox One patch has now gone live. You can read more here.]
The Battlefield 4 Xbox One launch was supposed to go so differently. A showdown with fellow shooter Call of Duty: Ghosts, the debut of 64-person multiplayer on Xbox Live, and a sexy debut for the Frostbite 3 game engine on Microsoft’s next-gen console. Instead, BF4 has been plagued by technical glitches, particularly with regard to Xbox Live multiplayer sessions. It’s not getting any better, as the biggest hurdles were supposed to be addressed in a BF4 Xbox One update that has now been delayed for at least one more week.
The delay to the Battlefield 4 Xbox One update will officially make the patch two weeks, maybe more, late. The title update was originally supposed to go live on Dec. 2, per a statement from DICE, following a similar Battlefield 4 PS4 patch that fixed client crashes and other issues.
Instead, DICE today announced on the Battlelog Forums that Xbox One patch is still in development and might be launched by Christmas. The statement reads “The update that was originally meant to go live the week of Dec 2 was delayed, but we decided to bring those fixes to the next upcoming Xbox One update. This new combined Xbox One patch is currently in testing and certification, and we will release it as soon as possible. We are hoping to get it live late this week or early next week.”
The full details of what’s included in the patch are still to be announced. DICE said the full roster of BF4 Xbox One updates will be announced as soon as the patch goes live. In the meantime, the developer did state that “it will focus on stability and some of the feedback we’ve seen from the community, including a fix for the one-hit kill bug and Commander EMP blur effect.”
Battlefield 4 was one of EA’s standout next-gen launch titles at E3, right alongside Need for Speed Rivals. It’s therefore disappointing to see the Battlefield 4 Xbox One version take such a stumble, but that’s one of the risks of all publishers take when accelerating game development for a hardware launch. EA has not reported official Battlefield 4 sales results, but articles on Forbes and other outlets have estimated that next-gen BF4 sales are far lower than expected. No doubt the technical glitches and subsequent bad PR are a contributing factor.
We’ll have more on the Battlefield 4 Xbox One update as information becomes available. In the meantime, let us know in the comments below whether you’ve experienced any of the glitches, and/or whether the BF4 technical issues have kept you from buying the game until they’ve been resolved.