EA Games executive vice president Patrick Soderlund has admitted that Battlefield 3 would have turned out much better if DICE would not have been so conscious of Call of Duty.
“One can advocate that even though Battlefield 3 was a gigantic success for us, I would say we may have looked a little bit too much at our competitor.”, he said.
“And we’ve been criticized for that, especially on the single-player side. But when we started doing Battlefield 4, we said we were going to make the game we think is the right game for us and the consumers. Again, you can’t be arrogant about it. You have to be a little paranoid about what others are doing, but staying true to what you’re doing is the key.”
He also said that the console transition is putting much pressure on the developers. Earlier, the PS2 and PS3 era were simply about high-def gaming and gamers were happy simply by enjoying their favorite games in high-def. But the next gen consoles demand more. High-def graphics go without saying. It is what is done outside of the graphics make a difference and prove to be a challenge.
According to him, gamers now want “a deep, engaging single-player campaign”, “multiplayer with seven to ten game modes”, “a huge variety of locations” as well as “some kind of service to support the game post-launch that is not ripping consumers off but actually adds value”.
Battlefield 4 is due in October. Keep posted for more news.