Battlefield 4 to be unveiled March 26 in San Francisco

Battlefield 4, the next entry in EA DICE's first-person shooter franchise, will be unveiled March 26 at an event in San Francisco, publisher Electronic Arts confirmed to Polygon today.

"Please join us to celebrate a new era of Battlefield," says the company's invitation, which you can see below.

EA DICE officially announced Battlefield 4 last July in a letter to fans on its website, saying, "The team at DICE is hard at work on the next entry in the Battlefield series." The studio also said at the time that it planned to launch a multiplayer beta for the game in fall 2013; anybody who pre-ordered Medal of Honor Warfighter is guaranteed access to the beta.

Last month, EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said Battlefield 4 is in development on PlayStation 4, and said the company's absence from Sony's unveiling of the PS4 was part of its marketing strategy.

"It is just amazing what the imagination of the game developers are allowed to do with that much power," said Jorgensen. Other platforms have not been confirmed at this time, although Frank Gibeau, president of EA Labels, said in February that will be released on next-generation consoles. Gibeau also said EA showed off Battlefield 4 to 500 GameStop store managers, and that it "received a huge ovation."

Battlefield 3 was released in October 2011 on Windows PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. EA DICE is concluding the game's series of five expansion packs this month with End Game.