The next game in the long-running Battlefield series, cops and robbers-themed title Battlefield: Hardline, will be launching on March 19, 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, publisher Electronic Arts announced today.

Originally EA and developer Visceral Games had planned to release Battlefield: Hardline this past week, on October 21st. The game was however delayed to 2015 in July after feedback from the early beta prompted DICE and Visceral to "push Hardline innovation further and make the game even better," Karl Magnus Troedsson, DICE vice president and group GM, said at the time.

Troedsson said that the teams at Visceral and DICE wanted to focus more on multiplayer innovation and incorporate "ideas direct from the community that will evolve the cops and criminals fantasy into a truly unique Battlefield Multiplayer experience."

Another key reason for the delay was to ensure technical aspects of the game were at their best. Ian Milham, creative director on Hardline has previously promised that this Battlefield will indeed work on launch, a hopeful change from previous series launches which have seen numerous problems both on launch and further into the life cycle.