“Going above and beyond the call” was one of Electronic Arts' many jabs at its rival during the marketing campaign for Battlefield 3 , but an EA executive now thinks focusing on its competitors was the wrong move.
In an extensive interview with GamesIndustry International , EA Games Executive Vice President Patrick Soderland admitted that EA may have taken too much from Call of Duty.
"One can advocate that even though Battlefield 3 was a gigantic success for us, I would say we may have looked a little bit too much at our competitor," Soderlund said. “We've been criticized for that, especially on the single-player side. But when we started doing Battlefield 4 , we said we were going to make the game we think is the right game for us and the consumers.”
It's nice to hear a higher-up be candid about Battlefield 3's lackluster single-player campaign, but those words don't mean much if we see the same thing in Battlefield 4. Battlefield's history is rooted in multiplayer, and its user base needs a convincing argument as to why they should even touch the single-player mode. Battlefield 3 didn't make that argument , but perhaps Battlefield 4 will.
Soderland went on to discuss Star Wars: Battlefront and the new Mirror's Edge . He called EA's decision to have DICE develop a new Mirror's Edge and Battlefront game a “no brainer.” He also said that EA has wanted to make a new Mirror's Edge for a long time, but was figuring out how to make the game less frustrating (we're guessing fewer guns).
DICE certainly has its hands full with Battlefield 4, a rebooted Mirror's Edge, and a new Battlefront game all being developed at the same time. Here's hoping the studio comes out the other side of the tunnel with some good games.
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