The critical response to Medal of Honor: Warfighter was pretty unforgiving, and so was its performance at retail. We didn't pull any punches, calling it "a boring, unoriginal, morally bankrupt, ethically dubious glorification of war, that's not worth your time or money." Nothing ambiguous about that! In short, you could probably call it "a bomb". As a result, EA has announced during its third quarter financial call that the Medal of Honor franchise has been taken "out of rotation".
The news comes straight from the mouth of EA COO Peter Moore, who believes the game was good, despite everything. "The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers, he said. "Critics were polarised and gave the game scores which were frankly lower than deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of rotation and have to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."
Labels president Frank Gibeau also put in his two cents, saying that "we're a hit-driven business where it's about what you can build in a certain period of time and really deliver for the marketplace, and frankly we missed on Medal of Honor. And we take responsibility for that."
But what of that other major EA property, Battlefield? Things are looking pretty rosy over there: Battlefield 3 Premium has accrued nearly 3 million subscribers since it launched in May. No surprises where EA's shooter focus will be going forward, then.
