DICE Says Niche Appeal Makes Battlefield: Bad Company Sequel Unlikely

[nomaner]

Well, at least EA didn't crush my hope for Battlefield 2143 or 1944.

 

[tdylan]

So. Much. Wrong!

If you make your product more niche, you'll get more happy fans, but that audience will be smaller

Yes, but it will be a smaller audience that is likely to continue to support your game longterm, and the other games like it:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7161-Perfect-Pasta-Sauce

When we did the original Bad Company and the sequel, we got a lot of criticism. Why would I play this? It's not a serious shooter, I don't care about this. I want a serious shooter with a more hard-boiled angle.

Bullshit! Bad Company 2 moved 5 million units. And I don't think that's counting downloads.

The game was a success. And better received that BF3.

if you want to make a game for the masses, you need to be more neutral when it comes to things like humor, because humor is very personal. Some people love it, some people hate it.

Yep, gotta keep that humor neutral. Cutting off your commanding officer's leg when he gets trapped under debris, and leaving him to drown when your vehicle flips off the road,, all stellar examples of a "neutral tone" right there. But god forbid the humor be off putting.

That's all I know about BF4 because I haven't actually played it, but I think you get the point.

Also - http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7985-Time-To-Get-Paid - how about making the game that you want to make, the way you want to make it, forgoing "mass appeal," and trusting that the "niche" fans will buy it hands over fists?

God! I miss the BF2 mod Point of Existence 2

 

[Entitled]

It's a sad fact of life that a semi-engaged mass-market audience is preferable to a fiercely-devoted small one.

This is not so much a fact of life, as a fact of the mainstream video game industry's business model. In industries that are charging more or less equal money per audience member, this is what always happens, movies and TV are the same.

However, compared to that, there are ways to make a medium niche-driven, such as the otaku anime industry's DVD-sale driven market, where after a free, late-night TV airing, it is the few thousand super-fans buying the expensive boxsets who decide what becomes profitable, or similarly, the Crowdfunding Model, where again, motivating a few thousand fans to throw money at you is better rewarded than making millions of people say "meh, I might check it out eventually or something".

 

[Worgen]

Ugh, people.

This is one of those things where it sounds like people don't want it because loud morons are all "We want a serious game with a hardboiled detective that doesn't play by the rules" when really they are stupid and would get it anyway because the multi is good. Bad Company pretty much showed that dice could only make a fps story if its tongue was firmly in cheek.

 

[SecondPrize]

This makes me sad, not because I liked bad company, but because I still harbored some foolish hope that the bad company series could serve as a containment zone for all of the DICE developers who want to make COD like games.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

NICHE?! It's one of the most beloved fps franchises.

So basically, anything that doesn't make unseemly amounts of cash is just not worth doing then? Bad Company actually had humour, a personality...
But screw that! Let's make more bland, mushy, browny-grey games, overhype the living shit out of it, spend hundreds of millions in marketing and if it sells anything less than 10 millions copies then it's officially considered a failure and gets abandoned.

 

[Longstreet]

Without even reading what he said i can tell you. Bull. Fucking. Shit.

In practically every thread on the BF4 forums someone brings up BFBC2 and wanting a sequel.

There is no fucking way the BC series is a niche market.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I don't see how the Bad Company games are "niche appeal." Everyone plays Battlefield for the multi-player, they don't really give a crap about the story. Sure, there are going to be people complaining on the forums about "GOD DICE, WHY ARE'T ALL THE M3N BROODING AND ST0TIC, THEY ALL ARE ACTUALLY HAPPY AND G@Y!!!!!1" But they are going to buying the game anyway.

Also, a show of hands, how many of you played and remembered the story to Battlefield 3 or 4? Anyone?

 

[CardinalPiggles]

A little Google search says BC2 sold 6.54 million units across all platforms. Is that niche? I don't fucking think so.

Now I'm no hipster that likes stuff just because it's less popular, but Bad Company 2 was the only BF game I ever truly enjoyed. It's really sad that they won't make another one. The franchise has undoubtedly grown a massive amount because of BF3, so I'm sure if they released another BC game it's sales would be much higher than BC2.

I dunno, I'm just sad they left the story so open, and yet don't plan to fucking finish it. That really pisses me off.

 

[Yoshi4102]

Also, a show of hands, how many of you played and remembered the story to Battlefield 3 or 4? Anyone?

I played the campaign to Battlefield 3!!! Do I remember what it was about? God no.

I remember some ridiculous car chase where you could shoot out the window but it didn't matter because both the cars flipped anyways. There was also something about a train and an attempt at shock value by shooting your own soldier. I didn't hesitate to shoot him either because he was a nameless husk of a man. I do remember thinking "Fuck, is this over soon. I want my achievements".

I'll admit though, it's not as bad as the Black Ops 1 campaign. That wasn't only stupid but broken too. The moral of the story is: skip all campaigns. They're not worth it.

 

[Strazdas]

wow DICE just went full retarded. 6.5 million sales is niche now apperently and "not worth developing for". This is why you fail DICE. learn from it.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

Well, at least EA didn't crush my hope for Battlefield 2143 or 1944.

Unfortunately, if a game that sells over 6 million copies like Bad company 2 did and is considered "niche" then there really isn't a lot of hope for either of those games being made (would gladly be proven wrong though, I want a new WWII game).

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, that's a shame. I rather liked the Kelly's Heroes feel of it all, even if it was rather hit and miss. And it clearly signals that they aren't going to do any out of the box thinking for a good while from now on.

I guess a WW2 Battlefield with all the good additions from modern gaming was indeed too much to ask...

Figure 1: My current feelings on DICE.

<youtube=EirSW4EJjok>

 

[Vanbael]

-insert rage here-

Seriously, Bad Company 2 was one of my favorite games that had a good story, good gun play, good balance. I'm very sad they are dropping it because I loved those characters in the single player.