Marlowe, Sweetwater, Haggard, and Sarge may have another Battlefield adventure on the horizon.

Though the Battlefield 3 beta is in full swing and the game's October 25 release date is right around the corner, a forward-looking reporter for the The Guardian wanted to know what plans, if any, DICE has for the Battlefield spin-off series Bad Company. Producer Patrick Liu's answer should satisfy fans who were sad to see the rag-tag B Company crew take a furlough for the proper numbered sequel.

"We haven't killed Bad Company!" he said. "But we can only make so many games. Be patient – there might be something else coming up...

"We always have a couple of projects going on – some of them die, but some are more fruitful. We don't have any plans to make Battlefield an annual title – we want to make it ourselves we don't want anyone else doing it! And no studio can make an annual franchise by themselves – well, the sports titles can but they're a very different breed."

Liu also shed light on why DICE chose the Operation Metro map for the Battlefield 3 beta, which contrary to typical BF maps doesn't feature vehicular combat.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding of the term 'beta test'!" he said. "We ran the alpha tests with a rush map and we wanted to have some sort of reference so we could compare results – so we needed to have more-or-less the same map. We do understand the concerns that we didn't show a conquest map, but we have demoed Caspian Border, and we did run a conquest map as a limited PC-only test."

In other Battlefield news, DICE posted a new blog that discusses the changes it plans to make for the retail release coming out of beta. Highlights include improved squad logistics, like the ability to create squads in a pre-game lobby, sticking with your squad when joining a game,and inviting friends to a squad and changing squads once in game. You can read the full list of changes here.