Battlefield 5’s first Tides of War update is delayed (update)

Update 2 (Dec. 4, 6:20 p.m. ET): Battlefield 5’s Overture update is now expected to roll out early in the morning of Dec. 5. According to a post on the official EA DICE forums, the download will be accompanied by about one hour of server downtime on each platform. The schedule is as follows:

• PC — Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 4:00 a.m. ET
• PlayStation 4 — Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 5:00 a.m. ET
• Xbox One - Wednesday, Dec, 5 at 6:00 a.m. ET

Update notes are available as a downloadable PDF.

Update 1 (Dec. 4 10:55 a.m ET): In a tweet issued late Dec. 3, EA DICE announced that Battlefield 5’s Overture update has been delayed. No release date has been set, but the team reassures fans that it doesn’t anticipate “a long delay.”

“The team has discovered an issue with the [Battlefield 5] Chapter 1: Overture update,” DICE said. “Rather than create issues in the game, we’re holding the update for the time being. We don’t anticipate a long delay and we’ll be back with more news tomorrow or as soon as we have it.”

Original story: Battlefield 5 got off to a rocky start, with critics and fans alike commenting that its single-player campaign felt incomplete and its multiplayer gameplay felt unbalanced. While core changes are on the way, the team at EA DICE is charging ahead with the first free batch of new content. Called Overture, this first package in the Tides of War series arrives tomorrow, Dec. 4. It will include a new multiplayer map, expanded cosmetic options, and a new single-player mission.

For the community of active players, the biggest news in Overture is the addition of Panzerstorm, a new armor-centric multiplayer map. Based on the historical Battle of Hannut, which took place in Belgium in early 1940, it will allow up to 17 tanks on the map at one time.

Compared to two or three tanks per side on most current maps, that much armor should change gameplay dynamics considerably. On Panzerstorm, infantry units will need to keep their heads down, using the terrain as best their able to set up ambushes for the opposing side. Meanwhile, air support will play a major role in blunting the enemy advance and breaking up player-built fortifications.

Leaning into the tank theme, the first new single-player mission being released alongside Overture is called “The Last Tiger.” It puts players into the commander’s cupola of Nazi Germany’s feared heavy Tiger I tank. The official PlayStation Blog says that the episode will focus on the emotional weight of the closing days of World War II.

Desperately trying to defend their homeland, a lone Tiger I Tank crew must attempt a last stand against overwhelming Allied forces while beginning to question the ideology that brought them to that point. [...] How will you use this legend of the German war machine to stay alive? Its heavy armor offers you some protection, but you’ll need to keep moving and play smart to make it through this War Story.

Overture will also open up cosmetic options for vehicles, allowing players to add things like nose art to their airplanes. It also adds two new arcade modes called Shooting Trial and Driving Trial. Both will allow you to take weapons and vehicles out for a test drive on a modified version of Hamada. The desert map will be augmented with targets and a scoring system.

To find out when the update is live for your platform of choice, keep tabs on the official Battlefield Twitter account. A developer livestream is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET today.