It's been a while since our last episode but it sure gives the guys lots to discuss. So many things have happened in the Battlefield universe lately that it's hard to mention them all but rest assured that things like BF2 patch 1.5 Beta 2, BF Heroes Beta, BF 1943, BF Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3 (!!!!) are all covered! Enjoy!
Criterion Games working on a Need For Speed game wasn't the only surprising bit of news that Electronic Arts chief operating office John Pleasants tucked into his presentation at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference I listened to today. Pleasants confirmed he's seen DICE's work on Battlefield 3. "I've had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product," he said. "Of course, that's not [coming out] in the fiscal year, but that is a product that is looking very good." Gamers worried that Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield 1943 were a three-pronged answer to fans demanding a third Battlefield don't have to worry. Battlefield 3 is coming!
Battlefield 3 Announced Now that Battlefield: Bad Company for the consoles and Mirror's Edge are out the door and Battlefield Heroes a lot closer to launch, the folks up at DICE have a lot of time on their hands. There have been rumblings for years that DICE is working on a follow-up to its 2005 smash hit Battlefield 2, and we're confident that the boys (and girls) at the Swedish studio are going to finally announce a sequel, to the delight of PC gamers everywhere. After all, despite being four years old this year, nothing has come close to matching Battlefield 2's wild blend of large-scale multiplayer warfare. Well, nothing except Battlefield 2142, the sci-fi follow-up, but we're hoping Battlefield 3 returns the series to the familiar and popular setting of modern warfare.
But the team is also at work on three other games based on the series, including a traditional core game aimed at consoles, and a new collaboration with Neowiz specifically for the Korean market. "Since the start of this year I've been working as executive producer for the entire Battlefield franchise - we've got five titles in development at the moment, which is probably more than you expect," Cousins told the GDC Paris audience during his keynote presentation.
BT: Between the console-based Bad Company and the more casual, kind of accessible feel of Heroes, some hardcore fans may be worried that the once realistic, PC-only shooter is now... BC: Changed? BT: Yeah, like it's going to suddenly become this casual, console-only shooter. BC: Well, I'm the executive producer on the franchise. I'm really in charge of the entire Battlefield franchise and it's very clear to me that there are three... well, we have to make this a three-pronged assault with the series really. First, there are consoles. Consoles are really big, we can't ignore them, we have to be on the consoles. Second, there's this casual experiment we're going with Battlefield: Heroes and the third prong is the hardcore PC gaming experience. We've made those in the past and we'll continue to make them in the future. We aren't specifically announcing anything, but we are still going to keep those hardcore gamers very happy. A lot of people are confused when they see Heroes because they see it and assume that that is the future of Battlefield on PC, but it isn't.
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