EA/DICE is Developing New IPs Beyond Battlefield

Patrick Soderlund isn’t too happy with the suggestions that DICE has become a “Battlefield factory” in very much the same way that Infinity Ward and Treyarch have become “Call of Duty factories” over at Activision.

The head of the Stockholm-based studio expressed that many of the 300 developers employed by the studio are working on titles other than Battlefield, and that the perception—while understandable—is inaccurate.

“Not all of them are working on Battlefield things, and that’s intentional, because we don’t want to become a Battlefield factory,” he said to OXM. “The minute we start saying ‘you’re going to make a Battlefield game for the rest of your life’, they’re going to go some place else. So for them to make great Battlefield games there need to be other things for them to do as well.

“That’s why we have people who move around quite a bit. And then obviously we have a boatload of people that just want to make Battlefield because they love it.

“Same thing with the team in San Francisco that are making Dead Space. It’s a stunning team and they’re passionate about what they do, and they love making Dead Space. Then the answer’s ‘well, then make Dead Space’. Then we have to figure out how to sell it and make it successful.”

Soderlund says that the studio is currently working on new IPs, and said that the moment the studio ceases to develop anything other than Battlefield games is “the day we put ourselves on life support and then we’re slowly going to die.”