EA: “We’ll Keep Making Battlefield Games as Long as We Have Great Ideas For Them”

“We’ll keep making Battlefield games as long as we have great ideas for them,” says DICE general manager Karl Magnus-Troedsson on the topic of annualizing their popular military-inspired first-person shooter franchise.

Speaking to EuroGamer, Troedsson explained that “There’s no rule set in place for this.”

The commitment is we’ll do Battlefield games if we have a great idea for something we believe is going to be interesting for driving the franchise forward, and something the players will enjoy. And, as I also said in the press conference, if we have a team that is passionate about building it.”

Earlier, DICE executive vice president Patrick Söderlund claimed that the launch of Visceral Games’ Battlefield Hardline spin-off “doesn’t necessarily mean that [EA needs] to annualize Battlefield and that’s the way it’s going to be forever and ever,” even though onlookers might easily see it that way.

When it comes down to it, Troedsson says that it’s really up to the studio, their responsibilities, and then the games they want to make. “I’m not shying away from the fact there is a business we need to run in the background, and having a successful Battlefield game every year instead of every other year, well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that’s a positive, right?” he added. “But I would never commit to something like that unless we feel we can deliver those games, something that feels like a good Battlefield game, it’s a true Battlefield game and is something we believe is right for our customers.”

In the case of Battlefield Hardline, EA CEO Andrew Wilson told EuroGamer, “We are going to launch an amazing game this year. The feedback has been strong. And we’re going to continue to run that game as a live service much the way we had Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 and we will do with Hardline. And then we’ll look at what’s the right time to launch the next one.

“We felt this was a great time to launch Hardline. It’s been in development for around three years. It’s ready to go. The content is cool. The gameplay is cool. And it was the right time. We think it can exist within the Battlefield ecosystem symbiotically with Battlefield 4 and to some extent Battlefield 3.”

Judging the interview by its face value, it doesn’t look like EA or DICE even know if the company will be pumping out Battlefield titles on a yearly basis in the near future. At the moment it appears that DICE’s hands are pretty full with both Star Wars: Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge 2. It’s also unlikely Visceral will pop out another Battlefield title any time soon after the launch of Hardline, as they have their own Star Wars project in the works as well.

As Wilson said on the chance of Battlefield 5 releasing next year, “Well, I wouldn’t assume that, but you might!”

59 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Games and Upcoming Releases