Vince Zampella: Battlefield “Absolutely Can” Outsell Call of Duty; BF2042 Was Not a “Failure” But They Don’t Want to Repeat Same Experience
While Call of Duty might be one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming, there was a time that Electronic Arts’ Battlefield franchise was inching closer to that. Sure, it didn’t outsell Activision’s mega shooter, but it was probably the closest a competitor ever got in terms of reach, community loyalty and even in sales.
Could a Battlefield game ever outsell a Call of Duty title though? According to Battlefield franchise head boss Vince Zampella, it “absolutely can” though that’s not what they’re aiming for with their still-in-development Battlefield game.
If you look at the best Battlefields have outsold some Call of Duties and other way around, back and forth. So I think absolutely it can…”I mean, is that what we’re going for? I mean, not directly, but always. We’re not looking to take down Call of Duty. We’re making something that’s different and we’re making something that’s us. But yeah, it definitely has the possibility.”
Of course, the latest Battlefield game released — Battlefield 2042 — didn’t come anywhere close to Call of Duty’s numbers, and even EA admitted the game fell short of expectations. Even with that in mind, Zampella notes that BF2042 wasn’t a “failure of a game,” though admits they don’t want to repeat the experience they had with the shooter wherein it needed a lot of patches — and several months of development — before it got to an acceptable state by the community. Zampella notes the dev team “really spent a lot of time learning how to adapt it and getting things back,” but also adds “We want it to be good out of the gate,” pertaining to the next Battlefield game currently in development.
Of course, Zampella’s musings aren’t just your typical corporate talk. For those unaware, Zampella along with Jason West were the former heads of Infinity Ward, which were the studio that made Call of Duty what it is today with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. There’s a lot of drama that happened after the release of the original Modern Warfare 2 back in 2009 that concluded with Zampella and West departing Activision to start Respawn Entertainment, which was then bought by EA in 2017.
In regards to the new Battlefield game, details are scarce, but Zampella has confirmed that it will be set in a modern setting, and players will see the return of traditional classes, and 128-player matches won’t be coming back.
[Source: IGN]
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