Modern FPS setting is getting “stale”, says Battlefield dev

Remember when every FPS game that came out was set in World War II, and then everybody got really sick of it, so then every FPS that came out was set in some generic, dust-blown Middle Eastern country vaguely representing the War on Terror instead? We’re really sick of that too now, and Battlefield developer DICE reckons it’s time to move on.

“I think we’re going to start seeing people moving away from the modern setting, because every now and again settings or themes start to get stale and then everyone jumps over,” DICE boss Karl Magnus Troedsson told Edge Online. “You know, at some point dinosaurs are the hottest thing and everyone is making games with dinosaurs, but there are trends. It used to be WWII, and recently it’s been the modern era and people are now moving towards near future.”

But is that really innovation? Not really, thinks Troedsson.

“It’s a bit cheap to just say, ‘Okay, we’re going to switch and go back in time or into the future and that will be innovation’. It will definitely drive the franchise forward for whatever game, but it’s not true innovation, it’s more a thematic change that has a perceived value to the gamers out there. But as a developer you can only make so many games in one particular era, and then you personally start to get a bit bored with it,” he added.

In the meantime, there’s always plugging the campaign for a the Battlefield 3 dinosaur mode.