Xbox Addict

EA Plans to Beat CoD Make a Better Game Twice

Despite the colossal success of the Call of Duty franchise the last few years, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello believes Activision’s premier franchise is beatable, and he has a plan to do it that’s as simple as it is ambitious: First, make a better game. Then make another better game the following year.
Okay, so maybe it’s a plan that brings to mind the age-old wisdom of how to draw an owl, but Riccitiello is convinced this is a tactic that’ll work. "If I had to pick the story I’d like to play out next year, [it’s that] we ship a 90 [Metacritic score game] and [Activision] ships an 85," Riccitiello said to Kotaku. "What I’ve witnessed a couple of times in the games industry is the way you unseat a market leader is you make a better game a couple of times in a row."

Curiously, Riccitiello doesn’t single out Medal of Honor, EA’s Call of Duty rival this year, but rather seems to point to Battlefield 3 as being their hopeful CoD killer (note: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 pictured above). "I have great expectations to do a lot better in 2011 than in 2010 on the strength of a couple of products like Bulletstorm and Crysis [2], but most importantly for us, Battlefield 3, which I feel incredibly good about," he said. "[Battlefield 3] is being built on the second generation of [the Frostbite engine], which I think is, at least in my opinion, a class act for FPS. I think we’re going to lift the game pretty dramatically in the first-person shooter category."

And of course, EA will eventually publish the first game from Respawn Entertainment, the studio founded by former Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella, although all Riccitiello would say about it is that "they’re working on a really cool product."