Battlefield Doesn't Need Annual Release, DICE Says

[IanDavis]

Battlefield Doesn't Need Annual Release, DICE Says

DICE: Battlefield is becoming a "first-person shooter/vehicular combat platform".

Like it or not, the annual release of a new Call of Duty game hits the gaming market like a kid doing a cannonball. Publishers desperately move their release dates to get out of the way, and the mainstream media makes it a line item on the nightly news. While it might make a huge splash, that's not a game that DICE wants to play with its Battlefield franchise.

"We can't build a game at DICE every year," Battlefield 4 executive producer Patrick Bach told [a href=http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/battlefield_4/news/dice_downplays_battlefield_annualisation_rumours.html]Videogamer[/a]. It's not for lack of demand, he says, but lack of reason. "Now it's been almost two years and people feel like they are continuously playing - we still have huge amounts of players playing Battlefield 3... Battlefield is almost turning into a first-person shooter/vehicular combat platform where people want more things but put into the same core mechanic."

Even so, he's quick to point out that the upcoming Battlefield 4 has reasons to exist. "Doing things like we're doing after Battlefield 4, you couldn't do that within [Battlefield 3]. It's not the same game... Just the fact that the customization layer is so much deeper, is based on a complete rewrite of the core handling of assets from the ground-up."

Meanwhile, Battlefield 4 will arrive on PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 November 1st, with Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions expected later.

Source: [a href=http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/battlefield_4/news/dice_downplays_battlefield_annualisation_rumours.html]Videogamer[/a]

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[Elate]

"Yearly iterations are pointless."
...
"But BF4 is different."

Back pedaling so fast after his first statement, if he was on it bike he would have broken the land speed record.

 

[Grach]

Seriously, they could have looked to their own 2142 or 1942 properties to make interesting alternatives. Hell if they wanted to try to continue digging through COD's garbage for ideas they could have done near future like BLOPS 2.

"Near Future". In the last decade military technology has changed so much that I'm pretty sure that by 2020 (decade where the BF3 campaign takes place, which is all 2010 tech) most first world armed forces will have unmanned tanks.

Frankly, Titanfall looks like something far more likely to happen in the future. Or at least, something 10 times more awesome than whatever CoD/BF has done lately.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

I got a funny feeling that the backpedal halfway though that statement was part of some contract arrangement by EA.

 

[Albino Boo]

"Near Future". In the last decade military technology has changed so much that I'm pretty sure that by 2020 (decade where the BF3 campaign takes place, which is all 2010 tech) most first world armed forces will have unmanned tanks.

Frankly, Titanfall looks like something far more likely to happen in the future. Or at least, something 10 times more awesome than whatever CoD/BF has done lately.

Tank development has been pretty static for the last 20 years. There simply hasn't been the need for a new generation of tanks since the end of the cold war. There has been incremental developments of the T-90/M1/Leopard 2/Challenger 3 generation but no new tank. Building a drone that flies at 10k feet with nothing to crash into is very much easier task than building an unmanned tank. A tank has navigate around a battlefield full of obstacles, prioritise targets and fundamentally survive a hit from another tank gun. On a maned tank, the shock of impact might knock lose some cables in the fire control computers and reduce its effectiveness but on an unmanned tank thats an effective kill. The Russian T-90 already has an EMP mine thrower fitted for knocking out at mines, an unmanned tank would be very vulnerable to a development of that weapon.

 

[josemlopes]

So instead they release 1 game with the full retail price and Premium with the price of the next year full retail priced game that doesnt come out. Then they just release the actual sequel with no distinct improvements that even justify the 2 years it took to make (since it didnt because of all the work put into the full retail priced Premium Content)

They basicly are doing a yearly release, its just that every 2 years one of them is just a huge 60$ map pack

 

[tdylan]

I recall when the Medal of Honor reboot was released, EA's plan was to alternate titles:

Release Medal of Honor in 2010, Battlefield 3 in 2011, Battlefield Bad Company 3 in 2012 (didn't happen), and then release Medal of Honor 2 in 2013. Rinse and repeat. It would be "yearly releases" of greyish brown, taking on rogue PMCs/Russians, modern military shooters, but it totally wouldn't be like what Activision was doing with COD. Even though Activation had the "switching titles" thing going on with "Modern Warfare" being developed by Infinity Ward, and Trey Arch developing plain old "Call of Duty."

Also, what DICE wants amounts to **** all when they're owned by EA. We all know what EA wants. We've seen it in games like dead space 3.

 

[LordMonty]

If this means 2 years+ of support for BF4 then that'd be cool. Depends if this is just hot air or part of a larger more intresting plan?

 

[faefrost]

So instead of a new Battlefield game every year they will now alternate it. Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, Battlefield etc etc.

Actually, now that I type it out. I could sorta kinda really live with that.

 

[Nurb]

Well that's just fantastic DICE, but you're owned by corporate shareholders that say "Milk that fuckin cow for all it's worth or you're fired"!

 

[Something Amyss]

"Yearly iterations are pointless."
...
"But BF4 is different."

Back pedaling so fast after his first statement, if he was on it bike he would have broken the land speed record.

But that was TWO years ago, so totally different.

 

[unstabLized]

I really wish DICE broke free of EA somehow.. I really like them as a developer, I can tell that they care about their products a lot and try to innovate as much as possible, but since they're grasped by a shitty, money grubbing publisher, a lot of times their hands get tied up. It saddens me.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well that may be how you see it but your leash master is known for different tricks, so we can expect BF5 rather soon.

 

[Metalrocks]

well, even when BF4 dint come out a year after BF3, i wont be surprised if a fifth part will follow later on. ok, 2 years does sound just a tiny bit better then every year but still, take more time to develop the next title. but i also think that EA will not allow it.

 

[james.sponge]

Dice should really revise their priorities the next big thing in FPS game design is future warfare not modern warfare