EA trying to unseat Activisions Call of Duty as the King of the Hill?

DenSweeP

DenSweeP

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One year ago this week, the head of Electronic Arts told me he had Call of Duty in his sights. Call of Duty was the king of first-person shooters. He wanted that spot. Today, he is convinced CoD is beatable.

This is the way to do it: "Make a better game," EA CEO John Riccitiello told me during an interview earlier this week in New York. "And make a better game again."

Sounds too simple? Maybe even too naive a method for knocking off a monster franchise that sells five million copies the day it comes out?
" The way you unseat a market leader is you make a better game a couple of times in a row."

"If I had to pick the story I'd like to play out next year is we ship a 90 and they ship an 85," he said, referring to Metacritic scores, which he watches as a measure of game quality. "[Activision has] an awful lot of momentum without heir brand, no doubt. What I've witnessed a couple of times in the games industry is the way you unseat a market leader is you make a better game a couple of times in a row. "

The Plan To Dethrone Call Of DutyThe year 2010 was good for EA shooters, he said. He wagers EA's gone from having just a tiny part of the first-person shooter audience to about a fifth. The spring's Battlefield Bad Company 2 (pictured here) was a hit, helping EA gobble up part of the first-person shooter attention that EA's rival Activision had been dominating with the Call of Duty (and related Modern Warfare) games.

For all the press EA's fall re-boot of Medal of Honor got, thanks to its modern Afghanistan setting and its use of the Taliban in its fiction, Riccitiello repeatedly cited to me the work of DICE, a studio that has primarily contributed to EA's shooter efforts with its Battlefield games as the architects of what he seems to think is his best shot at Call of Duty. (DICE also made the multiplayer portion of Medal of Honor)

"I think it's interesting that [DICE's] Battlefield Bad Company 2 got the same Metacritic score as [Call of Duty:] Black Ops," he said. He's right. Both games got an 88 at the time of this writing. He's also enthused about DICE's graphics technology, singling out their Frostbite engine and implying that visual punch is key to taking on Call of Duty. "We knew we were building on [the] Unreal [graphics technology] for Medal of Honor which wasn't our foot-forward tact," he said. "We knew that going in. Our next game [Battlefield 3] is being built on the second generation of Frostbite which I think is at least in my opinion is a class act for FPS. I think we're going to lift the game pretty dramatically in the first-person shooter category."
...most importantly for us [is] Battlefield 3, which I feel incredibly good about.

He has a bright view of EA's shooter line-up for next year, which of course will be up against the next big Call of Duty that surely is coming next fall. "I have great expectations to do a lot better in 2011 than in 2010 on the strength of a couple of products like Bulletstorm and Crysis [2], but most importantly for us, Battlefield 3, which I feel incredibly good about."

And further down the line is whatever game EA will be presenting from Respawn Entertainment, the former creative team behind the mighty Modern Warfare games. That team made an ugly split from Activison and the Call of Duty games earlier this year and now has something cooking for EA. ("They're working on a really cool product" is all Riccitiello would cough up about them.)

Better games, repeatedly. Riccitiello is convinced that can work, that Call of Duty doesn't have to dominate forever. "Over time we can take the lead."
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Sauce

I personally can't wait to to see what Respawn Entertainment comes u pwith to stick it to Bobby and his crones.
 
They'd better come up with something damn amazing after the crap that was the latest Medal of Honor.
 
(-: Battlefield 3 :-)

If they don't go and try to copy cod again, it might be one of the best games of 2011/2012.
And the new tactic from Boby will eventually fail. Bringing a new cod out each year or 2 years I mean that is really milking it.
 
Meh. I'd rather take a look at what 2K and THQ are cooking up. I'm not paying a cent to either of those companies who constantly screw over all thier customers.
 
Raven Gold said:
Meh. I'd rather take a look at what 2K and THQ are cooking up. I'm not paying a cent to either of those companies who constantly screw over all thier customers.
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I have to agree with you there , all too often we get screwed and not in the fun way .
 
you do realize the previous game Frontlines: Fuel of War was steaming pile of fail right?
 
Tank said:
you do realize the previous game Frontlines: Fuel of War was steaming pile of fail right?
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And your point? Personally I don't think it was all that bad and besides, they have probably learnt from it. Hopefully.

Another thing, show me one studio that has never released one flop/dissapointment before, well except maybe Blizzard.
 
DenSweeP said:
And your point? Personally I don't think it was all that bad and besides, they have probably learnt from it. Hopefully.

Another thing, show me one studio that has never released one flop/dissapointment before, well except maybe Blizzard.
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all i'm saying is don't get your hopes too high, if it's good then great, if it sucks well atleast you didn't hype yourself up too much


as for the second part, that's subjective. SC 2 to me is a disapointment.

seriously all those years and the best they can do is essentially tweak sc1?

right...
 
Throw a bunch of cash Respawns way & they'll get their CoD killer.

As of July 10, 2010, 38 of the 46 Infinity Ward employees who resigned from that studio following the firings of West and Zampella revealed through their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles that they had signed on with Respawn Entertainment
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This is the stuff Activision Executive's nightmares are made from.:p
 
Tank said:
you do realize the previous game Frontlines: Fuel of War was steaming pile of fail right?
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It actualy had all the making of being the best FPS around, it just lacked something special to it. Than I found a small mod for it that added some extra gameplay features and suddenly it had what it was missing and I'm now in my 5th play through.
 
I think they will definitely dethrone the COD franchise. To be honest, it's really not that great. Really.

Bad Company 2 wasn't the best BF game ever, but it sure was helluva lot more fun than any of the COD games before and after it. It still gets me excited every time I play. I don't know what some people problem with Bad Company is, but I haven't had a single game-breaking issue since I started playing, not a single one. COD in the other hand...

I think BF3 is going to be the freakin', most awesome damn FPS to play. I already know I won't be getting the next COD, unless it's something entirely new and it's getting a bit stale now, for real.

At least all of this might stir up some good competition between these two companies to stop bringing us pathetic products like MOH and games that are f.u.b.a.r, technically, like Black Ops.

Raven Gold said:
Meh. I'd rather take a look at what 2K and THQ are cooking up. I'm not paying a cent to either of those companies who constantly screw over all thier customers.
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Oh yes, I agree with the part where you say you are looking out for them. They are making some cool stuff indeed, which I'm definitely excited for.

BF3 is definitely the one I'm looking forward to the most. I'll buy Activision games again once they get a grip and stop making kak, unoriginal games to milk people.
 
It would be good if EA could get their shit sorted out and give their developers enough time to release complete games and not force them out when they want them out.

Activision is starting to fall into that exact trap now (see Black Ops). The previous COD games (MW, WAW and MW2) didn't have this problem, now all of a sudden Black Ops is a mess. If EA could get over this problem they will do really well IMO.
 
Tank said:
all i'm saying is don't get your hopes too high, if it's good then great, if it sucks well atleast you didn't hype yourself up too much


as for the second part, that's subjective. SC 2 to me is a disapointment.

seriously all those years and the best they can do is essentially tweak sc1?

right...
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I agree dude. It was a major disappointment for me as well.
 
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