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DICE doesn’t want a new Battlefield every year

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Autumn makes way for Spring, electricity prices go up, the taxman nails you, half the country goes on strike and a new Call of Duty gets released. These are some of the things you can expect every year. While some publishers and developers are happy to churn out new versions of their modern combat games year after year, Battlefield developers DICE believe that annualising their shooter because it would “eventually kill the franchise.”

"The business goals for us are not to release a game every year," Battlefield 3’s Executive Producer Patrick Bach said to GamerZines."To us, we need the time to be able to create the next game that consumers will hopefully like. If we were to release another big Battlefield title next year, that would mean that we’d have less than a year to build it, and that would mean that we’d have to have another studio building it for us, which would mean it wouldn’t have that DICE seal of approval, which would mean they’d just have to release a copy of the game we just released. Ugh, no.”

That’s more than just a subtle stab at the competition. "EA would never force us to release a game every year. I think that would dilute the vision of the franchise, and you will eventually kill the franchise by doing that."

Adopting the two-team rotational development cycle that Call of Duty sees “would be the killing blow for the franchise," Bach asserts, insisting that post-release support is a better tactic. "What we noticed with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was that if you spend enough time on making an expansion pack like Vietnam there’s enough content to make it feel new and fresh. It’s not only a map pack, it’s weapons and vehicles, and it makes the game feel fresh again. I think that’s a more healthy way of expanding on the game experience. It’s not a new game but a twist on your old game, and I think that’s a healthier way of looking at a franchise rather than just trying to cram every single last penny out of it."

He may indeed be right – but there’s no denying that Call of Duty is a phenomenon and that Modern Warfare 3, though it’s been just a year since the last Call of duty, will sell by the bucketloads. Do you think Activision’s annualised Call of Duty will go the way of Guitar Hero, or will the franchise keep riding the money train?

Battlefield 3 launches on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on October 28th.

Source : Gamerzines

Last Updated: August 4, 2011

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