Next Battlefield pits SWAT versus thieves

Updated @ 5:15 p.m. with Electronic Arts’ official teaser site for Battlefield: Hardline.

Fields of battle aren’t always in the Middle East.

Battlefield: Hardline is the next entry in publisher Electronic Arts’ popular shooter franchise, and it will have gamers playing cops and robbers, according to a leak. The unearthed info claims EA plans to release BFH (as it is calling it for short) for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC — and EA is confirming the game is real.

In response to the leak, the publisher posted a teaser website for Battlefield: Hardline, and it promises to talk more about the title on June 9 during its media briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show early next month. While we now know the game is happening, EA isn’t confirming any details.

While the publisher isn’t talking, members of the Better Battlelog fan forum discovered Hardline will have players taking up with either the SWAT or a group of thieves. These forces will have access to at least four playable classes: Enforcer, Mechanic, Professional, and Operator, and the art on EA’s site (which you can see in the header) includes some imagery that lends some credibility to these details.

After the initial leak, web developer Koen Vlaswinkel took it upon himself to dive into the official Battlelog website where he found Battlefield Hardline’s official logo.

Above: Leaked image from what looks like the next Battlefield game.

Image Credit: Koen V.

Vlaswinkel also discovered a logo for Dead Space developer Visceral Games, which would jive with rumors from earlier this year that claimed that studio is working on a Battlefield title with a heist theme. This is also potentially the “new, unannounced game” that EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen teased would make up for the publisher not having Battlefield 5 this year.

Hardline will also bring back a huge number of weapons and accessories to personalize how you kill those stinking robbers.

Battlefield 4 debuted in November for PC as well as the new and older consoles. Developer DICE produced the shooter, which ended 2013 as the fourth best-selling physical game in the U.S., according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. Those sales came despite numerous reports of bugs, connection errors, and other issues that plagued Battlefield 4 for months following its launch.

In December, EA announced that DICE would release no expansions or new games until it got Battlefield 4 fully working. As recently as last month, the studio was still addressing issues that negatively affected playability.

With Hardline in the works, that should give DICE more time to continue patching its last game while making sure that its next release doesn’t have the same woes.