Production hasn’t been in full-swing for the entirety of the duration, but according to Visceral Games creative director Ian Milham, work on Battlefield Hardline began “about a year before [Dead Space 3] shipped.”

“Well, development sort of ramps up rather than begins all at once,” he answered in a recent post on NeoGAF. “There was a core team on this for about a year before DS3 shipped, then the bulk of the team came over.

“We always have multiple things going at different scales. Star Wars is our other thing currently going, but we always have some other stuff simmering, including the New IP.”

Producer Yara Twit echoed Milham’s sentiments on Twitter, stating that development on “Hardline started over 2 years ago.”

“I was working on DS3 till ship though, like many others…”

If you’re a tad puzzled by the significance of the news, EA’s last three or so big shooters have all been built on a strict 2-year development cycle, which the industry appears to have adopted as the norm as of late. It goes without saying that many question the practice, as it’s seen as a way to produce quantity, rather than quality.

If anything, the a 2-year plus dev cycle means Hardline might get that extra bit of polish time that a Battlefield game deserves. We’ll see when it launches October 21.

Watch Battlefield Hardline’s first trailer and check out some of the new screens here.