Electronic Arts has confirmed previous reports that BioWare's upcoming game Anthem has been delayed to 2019, and in its place a new Battlefield game will debut this fall.

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EA officially confirmed Anthem will release in Q1 2019, or Q4 of its 2019 fiscal year, during the company's Q3 earnings call today. However, EA denied to The Wall Street Journal that the delay was due to the game's development being behind schedule, as reported in a previous Kotaku piece . Instead, the 2019 release is, according to WSJ, a factor of EA's decision to release a new Battlefield game this October.As a result, the company's executives believe Anthem, as a new IP, would fare better commercially in a quieter quarter than the busy fall window."It's not a delay," EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen told The Wall Street Journal . "People are trying to create a story."And while Anthem had previously not been given an exact release date, initial reveal plans had pegged the game for a fall 2018 release. Even before Anthem's official debut at E3 2017 , a new BioWare IP had been confirmed for a release before March 2018 , until it had been pushed back to the 2019 fiscal year , which ends on March 31, 2019.EA then officially debuted Anthem at both its own EA Play press conference , while new details were then revealed at Microsoft's E3 2017 press conference . And recently, a new report examined how BioWare has doubled its efforts to deliver on Anthem The last Battlefield, meanwhile, debuted in 2016 with the WW1-set Battlefield 1 Details for that title's newest DLC, Battlefield 1: Apocalypse , were recently revealed. At the time of its release, IGN's Battlefield 1 review said "the crude, archaic charm of World War I's weaponry lends unique personality to Battlefield's already strong first-person shooting."No details are currently available about what this new Battlefield's setting or focus will be.

Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush