14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has talked a lot about how it plans to take back the so called first person shooter crown from Call of Duty, the franchise created by Activision Blizzard, using the dual punches of the Medal of Honor and the Battlefield series.
But at the Communacopia Conference, organized by Goldman Sachs, Eric Brown, who is the Chief Financial Officer at Electronic Arts, has been asked whether the company would benefit from selling the Medal of Honor games that it creates under the wider Battlefield umbrella, thereby creating an annual franchise that could have a better chance at besting Call of Duty.
Brown answered, “What we have recognized is that people do like consistency in carry-over”, pointing out the fact that the Call of Duty video games do come out every year but are created by different development studios and tend to offer different experiences.
Last year Electronic Arts had high hopes for a rebooted Medal of Honor but the game failed to impress reviewers and it did not move in the blockbuster space when it came to sales while Black Ops managed to become the best sold retail video game of the year.
A sequel was announced as being in development but no details about it have been offered.
This year the Electronic Arts challenge seems much stronger with Battlefield 3, from Swedish developers DICE, impressing with its graphics, atmosphere and Frostbite 2 powered environments destruction.
The game will be offered on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC on October 25 in North America and will have just a few weeks to show off its potential before the multiplatorm launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
EA has said that it aims to cut into the market share of Activision Blizzard this year and that next year it might deliver the decisive punch.