This week, a few next-gen launch titles were delayed into 2014, drawing the groans of gamers eagerly anticipating the likes of Watch Dogs and Driveclub. However, that ire would have likely been worse had DICE followed through on potential plans to delay Battlefield 4 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox One.

In an interview with Games Industry, lead producer Patrick Bach talked about how Battlefield 4 almost missed the November launch window for both next-gen consoles.

"Well we've been very aggressive with Battlefield 4 in that we want to be out at launch with the next gen consoles," Bach said. "I think people might not grasp how hard that is, to develop a game at the same time as the hardware. We've been struggling quite a lot to keep up with the changes we've seen - both sides need to adapt and you end up being late. Everything is very complicated. Battlefield itself is a really complicated game, so it doesn't make our lives any easier."

Bach emphasized with Ubisoft in regards to Watch Dogs, adding that consumers don't know how much work needs to be put into development when trying to release alongside new hardware.

"Talking about Watch_Dogs, I don't blame them, there are times when we've considered doing the same thing - luckily we've overcome those hurdles and thought about what the game actually is on the next gen," Bach added. "We've had an excellent team working that out at the same time as the game itself, which is a big struggle. We can see that a lot of the next gen games coming are, arguably, lesser when it comes to the scope of features because of this problem."

DICE has been touting plenty of its next-gen features for Battlefield 4, so it doesn't look like that will be a problem. With only a few weeks to go until the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launch, we'll just have to cross our fingers and hope more games follow Battlefield's example, and don't wind up getting delayed at the last minute.

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