Battlefield Hardline dev on PC launch stability

"We’re not just porting it over," writes Battlefield Hardline's gameplay systems producer Mike Glosecki over at the Battlefield Hardline official site. "Battlefield started on the PC with 1942 and we know we have a passionate fan base on this platform."

Much of the post is an attempt to reassure potential players that Hardline isn't just a re-skinned Battlefield. As for PC support, 64-player battles return, and basic features are present:

"You can play at much higher resolutions, 1920x1080 and beyond up to the capabilities of your video card. You can also use much higher graphic settings on PC – which you gives you the best texture filtering, texture quality, and anti-aliasing in addition to other benefits. You can adjust your field of view or run higher than 60 FPS if you choose. You can even play with a three monitor setup for an immersive experience. Lastly, you get to use a mouse and keyboard which gives you the best control setup for a first person shooter."

As for stability of the game, Glosecki touches on Battlefield 4's extensive launch problems.

"Stability has been one of the largest areas we’re focusing our attention at Visceral while developing Hardline. I think we can all agree that Battlefield 4’s stability at launch was less than stellar. In order to address stability for our game at launch, we’ve had the game up and running in the multiplayer environment for the last two years with both the development and quality assurance teams playing in daily matches. We’ve run two betas for the game as well, one at E3 and the pre-launch beta which just completed on Feb 9th. Both of these have not only helped us solidify the stability of our servers, but have also provided great feedback for us to address in the game. As a side note, we are also making changes to Battlelog to include a new pop-up on how to activate the plugin in your browser since this was an issue for some of our players."

It's not quite an explicit promise of a smooth launch. It is, however, a heavy implication that Visceral are confident they won't be troubled by the same issues that plagued the previous Battlefield.

Head here for our complete Battlefield Hardline coverage.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.