EA Games Boss: We Won't Quit Until Battlefield Is Number One

[Andy Chalk]

EA Games Boss: We Won't Quit Until Battlefield Is Number One

EA Games chief Patrick Soderlund says he's not going to give up until he's number one.

Back in the spring of 2011 when John Riccitiello still had a job, he did his best to build up the rivalry [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109072-EA-CEO-Battlefield-3-Is-Designed-to-Take-COD-Down] between Battlefield and Call of Duty as a true clash of the titans. "[Battlefield 3] is designed to take [Call of Duty] down," he said. "If you're looking for a battle of the titans, a Red Sox versus Yankees, if you're trying to understand if it's Microsoft versus Google and what the tip-off point is for this holiday season - this is it."

And Battlefield 3 did pretty well for itself but Call of Duty is still the big dog, and while we don't have Riccitiello to kick around anymore, Soderlund is picking up his war-of-the-words torch. "Competition is good. It brings the best out of people. If there was only Battlefield or only Call of Duty, then the development teams might have been a little bit more content. We don't look at them necessarily and mimic what they do," he told MCV. "But we think about them."

"Maybe they weren't thinking about us much when we made Battlefield 3, but I can tell you, they are thinking about us now. They need too," he continued. "We made a dent in the FPS market and we took share from them. And I am not going to give up until I'm number one and I am going to make sure I'm number one."

Soderlund said he believes EA has "the right team, the right product and the right strategy" to reach the top, but added that there's no plan or pressure to turn Battlefield into an annual franchise like Call of Duty. "We have other games now. We have Titanfall, which we didn't have when we had Medal of Honor," he said. "To me it is about a balanced portfolio."

Battlefield 4 is scheduled to come out on October 29 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, on November 15 for the PlayStation 4 and November 22 for the Xbox One.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-s-soderlund-i-won-t-give-up-until-i-ve-beaten-call-of-duty/0121322]



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[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Good luck mate. But neither you're nor Kotick are seeing a penny out of me.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

As much as I like the Battlefeld series, if they're not going to stop until they're 'number one', they won't be stopping for quite a long time. It's not really about the games themselves any more, it's about what you know, what you're used to. You're not going to get many CoD fans with a new Battlefield game, and I don't even see why you'd want to.

 

[lacktheknack]

Who knows, it could happen.

My War Shooter Obsessive friends are talking about Battlefield 4 much more than CoD Ghosts.

 

[M920CAIN]

It was number 1 once, now it's number 4. Jesus, these guys don't know they're making Battlefield 4...

 

[Ranorak]

Normally this kind of rivalry will bring out the best of both parties and make sure they both strife to improve their games to the best possible level in order to outshine the other.

However, this is EA and Activision, so I guess it'll just be more of the same with just sharper graphics, more grinding for unlocks and once in a while a new dog.

 

[Something Amyss]

Who knows, it could happen.

My War Shooter Obsessive friends are talking about Battlefield 4 much more than CoD Ghosts.

I haven't heard a peep about Battlefield 4 from my friends, by contrast.

It could still happen, though. I wonder which would happen first: #1 status or EA running out of cash to throw at it.

 

[BrownGaijin]

So you want to be number one? Well here's an idea: stop doing things to your video games that seems to piss off a reasonable amount of the video game community!

 

[Andy Shandy]

Eh, you may take a while there then DICE-man. Which saddens me, because it means that you will keep on trying with this instead of doing something with Mirror's Edge.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

What worries me is that they consider all these shooters as a 'balanced portfolio'.

 

[silverbullet1989]

I hardly doubt they will do it this year either... i can imagine a lot of pissed off battlefield fans wont be investing in battlefield 4 (myself included) after the lies that where marketed to us during battlefield 3's development "true successor to battlefield 2 " utter bullshit. Not to mention the horrible patching system having to revolve around the consoles, the utterly horrific map design based around clusterfucks and bottle necks with no consideration towards 64 players. Then the so called community manager who only posted pics of his bloody cat and did nothing what so ever but teased and lied to try and keep fans from causing shit storms such as the one over the blue tint " too colourful? "

 

[RJ 17]

To be fair to the guy's point, most of the FPS players on my friends list are still playing BF3 rather than BLOPs 2. I'd say that proves (at least as far as my situation is concerned) that his "we made a dent in CoD" statement has a bit of validity to it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"We're going to keep taking derivatives of CoD4.x until we replace it!"
Well, to be fair, that's also what Activision has been doing for the last 5 years.

 

[Glaice]

Get rid of Origin and I'll give BF4 a try.

 

[Covarr]

For starters, maybe try to spruce up the visual variety in the game. BF3's visuals were absolutely stellar in execution, but they were kinda bland in style. Maybe, just maybe, you should consider doing something a tad more artistic. If nothing else, it'll help distinguish BF from CoD, so people who otherwise would've only bought the latest CoD will buy the next BF game also, instead of just your competition.

P.S. Thanks

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Sigh. I'm sick of this. I don't want any first person shooters to be "number one".

I'm sick of hearing about first person shooters and I'm sick of this being a thing. This has been so infectious that some people actually thought a Mega Man first person shooter might be a good idea. It is ruining franchises I actually care about.

All of my favourite video game franchises have withered with the trends. 2D platformers, fighting games, Japanese RPGs. All once popular video game genres are treated as old trends despite the fact that I still love them. When does this first-person-shooter trend go away?

I never wanted to play first person shooters back in the 90s, and I sure as heck haven't changed my mind now. First person shooters, oh first person shooters. Please just go away.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Soderlund ... added that there's no plan or pressure to turn Battlefield into an annual franchise like Call of Duty.

Did he ACTUALLY say that, or is this just putting words in his mouth? In an entire paragraph of quotes, you specifically generalized that statement. I mean, their actions do imply that they like breathing room, but the jury is still out.

 

[Covarr]

Soderlund ... added that there's no plan or pressure to turn Battlefield into an annual franchise like Call of Duty.

Did he ACTUALLY say that, or is this just putting words in his mouth? In an entire paragraph of quotes, you specifically generalized that statement. I mean, their actions do imply that they like breathing room, but the jury is still out.

It was like that in the source link, too. It probably wasn't made up, but if it was, it was MCV's doing, not Andy Chalk's.

P.S. Thanks