The Medal of Honor reboot was a major topic for the gaming world prior to its release. With mass media condemning the portrayal of the Taliban and EA trying to appeal to a major audience with a gigantic marketing campaign, it was almost no surprise when critics panned the game for multiple glitches and problems.
EA knows this, and to them it “didn’t meet our quality expectations,” says EA Europe VP Patrick Soderlund. "Medal of Honor is to some extent judged harsher than it should be. The game is better than today's reviews are indicating. What I can say is the game didn't meet our quality expectations. In order to be successful in that space, we're going to have to have a game that is really, really strong."
Though he defends the game, he recognizes that the series has a lot of work to do if it ever wishes to retake the top spot from Call of Duty. The poor reviews and long road ahead might seem like a lost cause, but EA is committed.
"I'm proud of what the game is and proud of what the team did. I just think the market is obviously telling us they think the game is X. We need to convince the market we can make something they appreciate more, particularly to be able to compete," he explained. "We're looking at that clearly. We're taking that seriously. I'm not at all saying Medal of Honor is a failure. It is a successful reboot of that franchise. We're going to be strong in the future."
The game’s future still remains in the balance however. Earlier reports suggested that 3 million copies sold were necessary to get a sequel approved. EA made a showing during opening week with over 1 million sales, but so far there has been no word on if Danger Close would be working on the series once more. Danger Close is however, “absolutely working on something.”
[Thanks Eurogamer]
2 Comments
November 2, 2010
Why did they release this if it wasn't up to their standards? And if timing was an issue, then why not add more members on the QC area to expedite fixes?
I realize that it's not that simple, but the point is that the current situation could have been avoided, they had the time and should have had resources to make it right.
This is a pretty ridiculous comment to make so short after the initial release. I translate to: "We don't have the sales we expected and the critical reaction we would have liked, so now we're stating that this wasn't really our best work (even the we trumpeted it for 12 months up to release)."
November 2, 2010
Guess I'm not buying that game.