Call of Duty has been pumping out annual titles ever since the fourth instalment, when Activision realised they could milk this franchise until it was dead in the water. Battlefield‘s executive producer Patrick Bach has said this will not happen to Battlefield.
In an interview with Gamerzines, Patrick Bach said that launching an annual title “will eventually kill the franchise” and claims that EA is not forcing DICE to create content on a yearly basis, instead stretching it out across multiple years.
Bach believes in order for DICE to fully commit to creating another Battlefield title, they need a few solid years and no help from other studios. When asked if EA could use the Activision model of splitting Battlefield to different studios, he claimed that would also be the death of the franchise.
This all comes from EA announcing Battlefield: Hardline, a new “cops and robbers” game mode that has been packaged as a full $60 release. Visceral Games and DICE worked on the title and it feels like EA wants more from the Battlefield series, after issues plagued the opening month of the Battlefield 4 release.
It might just be a tryout for EA, to see how many people would be interested in full price game-modes. Bach believes the Battlefield franchise could live in without having annual games, simply with DLC and add-ons offering a new experience on the same platform.
Battlefield: Hardline is currently in closed beta after thousands of people tried to get invites. The game is being tested before the official release, coming to current-generation consoles and PC. We wonder how big Visceral plan to make the world around Hardline and if it will feel like a true $60 title, and not just some DLC.
EA obviously sees Call of Duty as the pinnacle of modern-day shooters, not in complexity or mechanics, but in raw sales and usage. Call of Duty: Ghosts might have been the worst rated game in the franchise, but that hasn’t stopped millions picking it up.
DICE’s Patrick Bach might say EA is not into annual franchises, but unless there has been a major turnaround in the way EA thinks, we are sure the amount of money Activision makes from Call of Duty makes EA interested.
