Battlefield 4 AMD Mantle patch delayed to January (updated)

Battlefield 4's Mantle patch has been delayed into January 2014, an AMD representative told Polygon.

Mantle is an API designed to improve both a game's visuals and how efficiently it's produced. The patch was originally expected in late December, though it missed that projection. A representative provided the following statement:

After much consideration, the decision was made to delay the Mantle patch for Battlefield 4. AMD continues to support DICE on the public introduction of Mantle, and we are tremendously excited about the coming release for Battlefield 4! We are now targeting a January release and will have more information to share in the New Year.

Battlefield 4 continues to experience problems with its servers, downloadable content and more, though it is unclear if the delay is related to those issues. We've reached out to AMD for more information on the cause of the delay.

For more on AMD and Mantle, check out our interview with director of software alliances and developer relations Ritchie Corpus.

Update: According to an AMD representative, "the cause of the delay is due to EA's recent decision to halt game development in favor of bug stomping."