Battlefield Hardline, developed by Visceral, rumored to be EA's next shooter

It's strictly a rumor at this point, but it's looking increasingly likely that something called Battlefield: Hardline will be the next big thing to come out of EA's hit multiplayer shooter franchise. As noted by the Better Battlelog , various "almost facts" suggest that it will be a cops-and-robbers game rather than opposing militaries, with Thieves and SWAT facing off in multi-mode, multi-class online action.

If the rumors are correct, players will choose from one of four different classes—Enforcer, Mechanic, Operator and Professional—although those definitely sound more apropos to the Thief team than SWAT. Two new game modes, Blood Money and Heist, are also mentioned alongside Turf Wars and Team Deathmatch. Another site, KoenV.com , has posted what are purported to be a logo, a background screen, class icons, badges, awards and other images.

A "police-themed Battlefield" game was actually reported by Polygon back in early February under the codename "Battlefield: Havana," with the unexpected twist that it was being developed by Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series, rather than Battlefield originator DICE. DICE appeared to shoot down the idea of annual Battlefield games last summer, telling Videogamer.com that "we can't build a game at DICE every year," but EA may not be quite so sanguine about (relatively) long waits between new titles, especially with Medal of Honor out of the picture. As for Visceral's involvement, EA's Patrick Soderlund said last year that the studio was taking a break from Dead Space , asking, "Is it better to put them on the fourth version of a game they've done three previous versions of before? Or is it better to put them on something new that they want to build, that they have passion for?"

This is an entirely unsubstantiated rumor at this point, so don't bet the farm on it just yet. On the other hand, E3 is just around the corner, so if something is going to be revealed, this is the time you'd expect it to happen.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.