Earlier today, EA officially announced that it's reinventing its Medal of Honor franchise; the next game will portray a more modern battle taking place in Afghanistan. If it seems like EA's looking to dethrone the $3 billion Call of Duty series, that's because that's precisely what they're attempting to do. EA CEO John Riccitiello told Kotaku that he wants to get ahead of Activision in this genre again.
"I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow, but in the way that Activision sort of alternates sequels of Modern Warfare and Call of Duty and owns the leadership position in FPS [first-person-shooter], between Medal of Honor and Battlefield, I want it back," he commented. "And we're going to get there with innovation and quality."
Not only is Riccitiello excited about Medal of Honor, but he believes EA DICE gives his company a huge advantage when it comes to multiplayer, and he's very bullish on DICE's upcoming Battlefield Bad Company 2, which is slated for a March release. "The first [Bad Company] did very well in its first outing. The next one is a heck of a lot better and it looks like a worthy competitor to Modern Warfare," he said. "We think we've got an advantage over Modern Warfare 2 with our multiplayer. The guys at DICE do that really, really well."
Whereas Riccitiello believes Medal of Honor and Battlefield will innovate, he thinks Infinity Ward's gameplay formula is getting stale. "I think the Infinity Ward guys are great. ... I'm a fan of a lot of our competitors' products. But if you've played Modern Warfare, and you've played the first one — and you've played the last Call of Duty — it's sort of starting to feel like they're making the same game again," he quipped.
3 Comments
December 3, 2009
"And we're going to get there with innovation and quality."
You heard it hear, ladies and gentlemen, said non-ironically.
December 3, 2009
Haha, this is hilarious. Going in circles? The Call of Duty series was spawned from the Medal of Honor series when the original developers left EA. They should have thought about "Innovation and quality" when they were launching Medal of Honor Airborne. Ah the hypocrisy, if there's any company that makes the "same game" more than anyone it's EA. Same engine, same mechanics...different theme. Command & Conquer/Tiberian Sun, Battlefield 1942/Battlefield 2/Battlefield Vietnam/Battlefield 2142. The Bad Company games look cool, but they should try a new IP title instead of sticking with a redundant series name because it implies a consistency with older titles in terms of the, again, innovation and quality.
December 3, 2009
"But if you've played Modern Warfare, and you've played the first one — and you've played the last Call of Duty — it's sort of starting to feel like they're making the same game again," he quipped."
Apparently this man has never played the yearly(mildly updated) versions of all of his sports titles, starting with Madden. They ALL feel like you're playing the same game over and over again. Just saying.