Ignoring calls from Activision to tone down its rhetoric, EA Label boss Frank Gibeau says that - for the first time - the Call of Duty series will face the first real competition it's had "in a long time."
Gibeau bragged that DICE's upcoming FPS shooter Battlefield 3 will "definitely" take market share away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this Christmas.
"We're going for it," he said. "We don't take things lightly. If we're going to go after a category, we intend to lead. We have a very big competitor there but they're going to get some competition this Christmas for the first time in a long time. We're all in. We're going for it. How you measure victory, I don't know. What I'm curious about is how the game is going to finish from a quality standpoint - I think it's going to be great."
"We're going to take share from them and I think we're going to grow the business significantly," he continued. "We're going to give them competition for the first time that they haven't had."
Pre-fight cross talk is great in boxing, MMA, and even pro wrestling, but I’m not sure that I care for it when it comes to shooters. Pick your side, and join in the fight, I guess...
Source: C&VG
Comments
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
that sounded more like rhetoric and fist-pumping to me, with a little self-given ass-pats.
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
EA Label boss Frank Gibeau says that - for the first time - the Call of Duty series will face the first real competition it's had "in a long time."
did he literally say it would be the first time in a long time? wasn't Medal of Honor and Battlefield 2 supposed to give CoD it's first real rival in a long time? I really don't have any interest in this particular corner of the FPS market, but I get the feeling it's like the MMO market, everyone says it's going to be the "WoW-killer", but most of them just end up trying to beat WoW at it's own game and don't really seem to succeed.
The only way to really take away from CoD is to try to do something different, evolve the genre in some way, whether it's a big way, or a tiny way (like Guild Wars 2 is trying with the MMO framework).
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
Actually, the term "WOW-killer" was invented by g4 (I call it techtv 2.0 now) when Warhammer Online made its debut. Ever since then, people have been giving every MMO that label even if it's not that game's intention to directly compete with WOW (prime examples: DND Online and Star Trek Online). Anyways, the reason that Frank made that statement is because COD hasn't had a real rival ever since Modern Warfare. Grant it Medal of Honor made some waves, but it was considered COD Lite by players, and was quickly forgotten. The Bad Company series caused concern, but it was more story driven and an experiment of DICE's rather than a direct rival of the recent COD titles. This is the first REAL Battlefield title of this generation's console/pc games (Battlefields 1 and 2 was last generation's), thus EA wants to make a big splash.
Also these remarks are not meant for consumers to understand. They're made to produce excitement for investors (something that EA is quite skilled at). As an investor, I think that this will be one of the best holiday seasons for gaming, because when competition goes up a level, the consumer benefits.
The devil takes many forms, and yet it is always the devil.
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
I'm... fairly certain that Medal of Honor was started long before Call of Duty was.
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
I'm referring to the modern reboot of the series.
Re: Call of Duty v. Battlefield, Round 79
I'm sure he's referring to the latest Medal of Honor which took place in modern times.