Battlefield 3 will give Activision's Call of Duty series the first real competition it's had "in a long time," EA's bullish Labels boss Frank Gibeau has stated.
"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."
He continued: "We're going to take share from them and I think we're going to grow the business significantly. We're going to give them competition for the first time that they haven't had."
This morning Activision released its debut multiplayer trailer for Modern Warfare 3, and CoD critics descended on YouTube to stamp it with negative 'dislike' votes.
But Gibeau doesn't list Call of Duty haters on EA's bullet point list of strengths, but rather Battlefield's advanced technology base, development time and the experience of long-term studio DICE.
"We like to think that we've got a pretty powerful game offer with the technology base that is brand new, next generation and should set new standards for what happens in FPS," he said.
"We're excited about and we're really proud of the Battlefield 3 game. It's coming together very well and the quality and technology is something that you can just see on screen. The DICE guys have the pedigree of building some spectacular games.
"This Christmas we're definitely going to take market share in the FPS category from those guys," he concluded. "Customers like competition, they like these kind of heavyweight fights so we're going for it."
Battlefield 3 is out on October 28 in Europe.
Comments
23 comments so far...
TheCrimsonFenix on 2 Sep '11 said:
Too much talk of wanting to take shares away and not enough of telling us why exactly it's going to be "better".
In my opinion EA are making themselves look more worse in the space of 6 months than Activision have in their whole development of the samey CoD sequels.
jamesc8 on 2 Sep '11 said:
Didn't EA say all this when Medal Of Honor came out, and look what happened there.
markyR on 2 Sep '11 said:
Oh right, so you are ADMITTING your Medal Of Honor with hyped multiplayer by Dice was actually really s**t then? Well we could have told you that, BF3 will be the same too, it's not s**t but it won't stand a chance of beating COD.
In fact EA's entire slander campaign has been really weird? Really pointless and no one can understand why they are doing it? BF3 is BF3, no amount of mud slinging is going to change it and no amount of EA bullcrap will make it sell any more but it can make it sell less..
But it really is just a mahooooosive case of the jealous green monster!
deepbluerd on 2 Sep '11 said:
So your saying Halo Reach was s**t also? Reach was better than black ops and MHO. Reach wiped the floor with both of those games last year.
EddieNES on 2 Sep '11 said:
I love Medal of Honor.
KK-Headcharge78 on 2 Sep '11 said:
So BF2, Crysis and MOH were all s**t then?????
No they weren't, they were all great IMO, but hell EA you need to shut the f**k up and release the game, all this b*****ks is raising the expectation level for BF3 so high that the room form disappointment grows ever larger for the game..... a game I am still yet to see a decent amount of console footage for aswell!! Less than a month from launch!
How do you measure success well it's simple sales+community feedback +whether millions are still playing it in 12 months.
StonecoldMC on 2 Sep '11 said:
Is this EA taking a dig at their own studios
?
Drusus on 2 Sep '11 said:
EA realise they keep saying 'Activision' and 'Call of Duty', over and over again, it's like free advertising.
mogel94 on 2 Sep '11 said:
I think everyone should all go buy Rage instead
markyR on 2 Sep '11 said:
I would also add, how many people who don't play games like mothers etc have heard of Call Of Duty? Now ask them if they have heard of Battlefield, or see if they instead of saying he's probably playing his Xbox/ Playstation, they say he is probably playing his COD......
I have seen this change a lot, COD is on it's way to being a house hold name if it isn't already, something EA really can only ever dream off, man they must be jealous.
And as for the Rage comment above, hell yeah, but along with BF3, GOW 3, Deus Ex, Driver...... crap loads of AAA titles from this month on...
gmcb007 on 2 Sep '11 said:
This rubbish is not worth reporting. Seriously, it's sad when a news outlet relies on fickle insults for their main headlines.
Whiplash x360a on 2 Sep '11 said:
EA has a really strong point they've made. Ever since Call of Duty 4 came out, EVERY game has tried to be like CoD. Transformers: War for Cybertron, Crysis 2, Brink, Halo Reach, hell even Bioshock 2 tried and failed. Nowadays, all you see are CoD spinoffs from different developers, and I think BF3 is trying to be a unique version of CoD without making it look like the same, bland experience that we all know and "love."
theblkwhsp on 2 Sep '11 said:
I agree with the majority of sane users on here. Battlefield and EA are making themselves look like amateurs with all this mudslinging. Talk about an inferiority complex. I'll buy them both. No doubt I'll be impressed with Battlefield but I'll probably put more time into MW3 because I prefer the last CoDs over the BFs and Bad Companies. In all honesty Deus Ex will probably still be in my tray when I think about it...
cult on 2 Sep '11 said:
Have to admit it I really like MOH online.
The only people who suck at it and moan are the campers and hip shooting codites.
Any fixes you may suggest for MOH would only turn the game into BF3, for a reboot it worked.
Whether EA needs 2 Modern Shooters though is debatable.
Imdanshort1 on 2 Sep '11 said:
Seriously!!!! I use to think EA was a good studio that released decent games for a wide range of the population but since all this b***sh** i have lost a lot of respect for EA. Clearly BF3 will do well but it wont even scratch MW3! I bet Frank Gibeau will have a lot of explaining to do
TheLastDodo on 2 Sep '11 said:
No he won't because EA have never stated that BF3 will be a CoD beater (in sales), they've repeatedly stated ever since BF3 was announced that BF3 was the first step in EA's long term plans of "taking back" the FPS crown, Riccitiello has said BF3 is all about eating into CoD's market share and slowly but surely, over the forthcoming years, surpassing CoD in sales.
But please don't let the facts get in the way of your EA hating.
And yes this guy is right CoD has had it too easy for years, it's incredibly sad seeing my friends list populated by people only playing CoD, BF3 will help push the CoD developers to raise the bar, just like CoD's success has and will continue to force EA's FPS developers to raise their own bars.
Competition is only a good thing.
Imdanshort1 on 2 Sep '11 said:
Hey i'm all for healthy competition because it benefits us the gamers but theres no need for the b*tchiness specially when Activision hasn't replied to them in the same tone
TheLastDodo on 2 Sep '11 said:
Well they have (Sledgehammer for ex. with their 60 fps putdown), but I agree EA are doing it more, neither side is the out and out good guy though and at the end of today nothing EA or Acti say about each others games will make me think less of BF3 or MW3 when I actually play them.
CJG on 2 Sep '11 said:
Keep digging EA
ladycroft142 on 2 Sep '11 said:
I really don't care who wins this so-called FPS war. The way I see it two great FPS games this Christmas is better than one.
boonattack on 2 Sep '11 said:
yaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn. sick of hearin about this now, both games are modern day FPS games, nothing in either game is going to be much different than each other or the other 200 or so modern day fps games. I've played modern day shooters already, im now sick of it. Ww2 again next year? predictable, overhyped and now ran into the ground. I'll be getting neither thanks.
wasted-again on 3 Sep '11 said:
So what were MOH:Airborne, BF:BC 1&2, BF:Heroes, BF1943, BF:Play4Free and MOH then?
Modster79 on 3 Sep '11 said:
EA need to shut the f**k up for their own good. They're giving me the impression Battlefield 3 is just gonna be average and they feel the need to trash talk IW/Activision and the Call of Duty franchise.
At the end of the day, MW3 will DESTROY BF3 commercially (perhaps even critically considering the amazing multiplayer news). No escaping that fact, and they know it. Otherwise they wouldn't have been opening their traps so much.