EA Admits It Blew Medal of Honor: Warfighter

[Andy Chalk]

EA Admits It Blew Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Electronic Arts says the Medal of Honor franchise will return but not until it's able to actually do a decent job with it.

It's not often that a game tanks so badly that it effectively kills an entire franchise, but that's exactly what happened with Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Electronic Arts Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore said the publisher is "taking Medal of Honor out of rotation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121799-Electronic-Arts-Drops-Medal-of-Honor]," but not before claiming that "the game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with gamers."

Chief Creative Director Rich Hilleman, however, has a different and somewhat blunter take on the situation, which is quite simply that EA blew it. "We don't think its a genre problem. It's an execution problem," he told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "We don't think Medal of Honor's performance speaks to any particular bias in that space against modern settings or World War 2 or any of that. It's much more that we had some things we should've done better."

"I think a key part of this is having the right amount of high-quality production talent," he continued. "And we didn't have the quality of leadership we needed to make [Medal of Honor] great. We just have to get the leadership aligned. We're blessed to have more titles than we can do well today. That's a good problem, frankly. In the long term, we have to make sure we don't kill those products by trying to do them when we can't do them well."

I can't tell if that second remark is an admission of culpability or a pass-the-buck cheap shot at Danger Close, the EA studio responsible for both Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Danger Close is - or at least was - headed by industry veteran Greg Goodrich, who served as executive producer on both games, but his LinkedIn profile [http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3997973&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=Kg2B&locale=en_US&srchid=0b6ffb8f-fc99-448f-b3fe-e0c55b2f55f1-0&srchindex=2&srchtotal=214&goback=.fps_PBCK_greg+goodrich_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&pvs=ps&trk=pp_profile_name_link] indicates that his tenure at the studio came to an end in December 2012.

Whatever the case, it's clear that Medal of Honor will be back, but for now Hilleman confirmed that EA is putting its eggs in the far more successful Battlefield basket. "What we think right now is that, for the next couple years, we can just have one great thing in that space," he said. "So we're choosing for it to be Battlefield."

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/12/ea-medal-of-honors-not-dead-just-sleeping/]


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[Soviet Heavy]

So Battlefield will be run into the ground for a while now?

 

[Tradjus]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

 

[Sylveria]

Every time a shooter series dies, an angel gets its wings.

 

[karma9308]

I'll give them credit, one of the few times I've heard EA actually own up and admit a mistake. Granted it's not much, but baby steps.

 

[Sylveria]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

It was a pale imitation of every other war-shooter out there and was buggy as all hell. In a world were stuff like CoDBlops2 was released within spitting distance, Warfighter had no need to exist.

 

[gigastar]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

Well...

I think a video. One that demonstrates just a portion of whats wrong with Warfighter.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Oh hey, when did EA get a sense of self-responsability?
Granted, it was only one employee and the official statement is "The consumers just don't understand", but EA does come off slightly cleaner in the wake of this.

 

[Therumancer]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

Well...

I think a video. One that demonstrates just a portion of whats wrong with Warfighter.

The video I thought of last time "Doorfighter" came up. As I said there, it's amazing how in denial EA and it's people can be about their games, and why they underperform and get bad ratings. I mean even when you get past Totalbiscuit's opinion, that is a bad game, you have sniper bullets phasing through pillers right in front of him... and as he demonstrated he's basically invulnerable, just basically walking from point A to point B to set off a cinematic...

To say this is a good, well designed game, is complete delusion. I'm sorry, you should not have magical phasing bullets (in the form of white dashes) in a game that has been (allegedly) playtested and marketed by EA.

Then when you get to the opinion-centric bits, about the nature of the game, linear progression, unable to go backwards, dying for stupid reasons on a tiled floor to force actions, etc... it's not like Totalbiscuit is expressing some truely outrageous sentiments unique to him.

The bottom line is it's not a FPS anymore, and it looks and plays like crap, and even the basic mechanics like the bullets, shooting (those were headshots, rly?), are all borked. I mean sure, a pretty explosion might be "good graphics" but with the restored door and the way those bullets were going through the pillar, you have to say the graphics are pretty much crap, there was just a good "moneyshot" thrown in.

No amount of leadership changes seem likely to have fixed this mess, the problems involved here are something you kind of have to blame the entire team for. It's just flat out a bad game... an expensive one with high producton values, but just flat out a bad game.

I think it's amusing that even in admitting they blew it, they seem to be trying to deflect
blame and criticism.

 

[VladG]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

Let me put it like this: A friend of mine quit his job as a beta tester for EA because of this game. THAT is how bad it is.


Also for Doorfighter fans, a LOT of the breaching sections were cut from the final game because they were too buggy.

Yeah. There were more. Lots more.

 

[BrotherRool]

"the game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with gamers."

haha they made dragons lair with soldiers and wondered why it didnt work so its the gamers fault

What I love is the second guy is directly contradicting that 'We don't think its a genre problem. It's an execution problem,"' We don't think Medal of Honor's performance speaks to any particular bias in that space against modern settings or World War 2 or any of that. It's much more that we had some things we should've done better."

There is clearly a fight going on between those two people.


Seriously, okay EA probably has some culpability for how the game turned out, but if the game was bad and it wasn't a direction decision, then some of the responsibility does have to end with the people who actually made the game. Maybe they needed more time, but time is money and a game is only going to make so much money. We laugh at games needing to sell 2 million to break even, but thats what extra time can equate to.

 

[Little Gray]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

Well...

I think a video. One that demonstrates just a portion of whats wrong with Warfighter.

Wow. I have to ask, do people really take the stuff that idiot says seriously?

 

[gigastar]

This game flew completely under my radar, what was so bad about it?
I mean, it was put out by E.A so that could have been the problem right there, but I'd like specifics.

Well...

I think a video. One that demonstrates just a portion of whats wrong with Warfighter.

Spoiler

Wow. I have to ask, do people really take the stuff that idiot says seriously?

You opinion on him doesnt come into this, take thy flamebait elsewhere.

 

[octafish]

This does not bode well for my preferred shooter IP. Sigh. So we are going to get more single player filler crammed into Battlefield now? And probably no BF2143. Double Sigh.

I hate to say it but if they bring back proper voice communications and tighten the netcode in BF4 I'll probably buy in. I quite like BF3 despite a couple of issues. I've gotten used to small squads and a lack of the Commander. The maps in the DLC post Close Quarters have been much improved, it is almost like DICE remembered how to make the game fun with cap points giving an actual advantage and naturally occurring hotspots.

Also in BF4 they won't need to restrict console player numbers as the new consoles should be able to handle the same amount of players as PC. The same maps for all, not those little ones from Vanilla, should result in an overall better game.

They should sell the single player and the multi-player separately though so they can see that no one wants BF for the single-player.

 

[Little Gray]

You opinion on him doesnt come into this, take thy flamebait elsewhere.

Im asking because that is all his video was. He didnt make any real points other then he hates modern shooters and is willing to cherrypick a game to try and prove a point.

 

[VoidWanderer]

So EA is bi-polar now?

They should leave Peter Molyneux's anti-sane medication then.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

EA are blaming the dogs they taught to piss up the wall for pissing up the wall.

I hope no one buys the next Battlefield either, just to prove a point.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I can tell no one responding actually played Warfighter because it is actually the best online console FPS this entire console gen. Warfighter has the tightest and best FPS controls this gen. Here's a list of things Warfighter has that almost no other online FPSs have: leaning (a must for any FPS in my opinion, COD and BF don't have leaning, just embarrassing), dedicated servers (no host migrations!!!), and a slide and shoot mechanic that makes gun battles so much more dynamic (there's nothing like sliding around a corner to shotgun a camper). The guns in the game all feel great and there's actually recoil as well. The class system is very well done. The game is actually BALANCED unlike other FPSs (*cough*COD*cough*). The game is less laggy than most other games and there's only a few glitches after the patch (VOIP is still crappy).

With all that said, the single player was complete shit. But people buy games like this for the multiplayer, and the multiplayer is just awesome-sauce. Reviewers don't have a clue on how to review online multiplayer, they play for a few hours and that's it, not even enough time to learn the maps and mechanics fully. The game didn't deserve the scores it got, you definitely have to dock points for the single player, but 5s out 10 were unwarranted when the multiplayer is fantastic and that's what you buy a game like Warfighter for.

Hats off to Danger Close for actually making a good online FPS for a change. DICE is far worse at making multiplayer like MOH 2010 or they break anything decent they did like BF3. DICE needs to just make Mirror's Edge 2.