14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry saw a lot of brand new IPs (Intellectual Properties) released last year, most of them coming from a company that was infamous for the fact that it “milked” its franchises with yearly installments and didn't focus on making new games, Electronic Arts. Titles such as Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect for the PC or Battlefield: Bad Company entertained a lot of gamers and offered some very interesting new experiences.
Now it seems that the North American company will continue to develop these new titles and turn them into franchises, as EA's chief executive officer, John Riccitiello, has just announced during a press conference that sequels for both Mass Effect and Battlefield: Bad Company will appear in 2010, thus ending all speculation that has arisen around both games in the last few weeks.
While Mass Effect 2 was almost a certainty, as BioWare, the studio behind it, is due to hold a lecture about level design in the game at the following Game Developers Conference, the Battlefield game, coming from Mirror's Edge creators DICE, was present in only a few rumors, which appeared after the studio announced it would hold a conference in which it would announce a future console exclusive title, as was the first Bad Company, appearing only on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
John Riccitiello refused to go into specific details and only said that Mass Effect 2 would be a multiplatform title, but didn't mention what platforms the future RPG would arrive on, leading to further speculation, as the first game appeared for the Xbox 360 in 2007 and for the PC in 2008. Whether or not the PlayStation 3 will receive a version of this future game is left for a future announcement that BioWare will make.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the other hand will arrive in 2010, and it promises to take the tongue-in-cheek approach to battles one step forward. Sadly, it will use the same graphical engine as the first game, which, although it offered a great experience, didn't really shine, and fans hoped that the sequel would look much better. Riccitiello didn't offer any more details on this title and will probably let the DICE team make their own press release in the following days.
In conclusion, it seems that EA will do what it does best and hopefully improve on the first games, which offered a great experience. Until then, we can still play the first Mass Effect and Bad Company.