To have longevity in the gaming space, you need two key things. First, you need to have a level of quality that ensures that people want to buy the game and spread the word about it. If you think about various famous franchises that have been around for decades, they have that overall. Sure, they might have a few bumps in the road, but they always come out on top in the end. The second thing is sales. You need the developer/publisher to know that if you make a new entry, gamers will buy it. The Battlefield franchise is interesting on both fronts because it has had both, but it often comes with catches.
For example, while many can think of entries within the series that have had a high level of quality for one reason or another, there have also been plenty of titles that weren’t as good as they should’ve been, including the most recent entry that fans railed against since its launch. On the sales front, the series has done mostly well, but it hasn’t sold anywhere near the level of its main competitor. As such, it has always been viewed as the “No.2” first-person shooter franchise in the land, and that might be generous on some fronts.
However, we know that a new Battlefield entry is coming sooner rather than later and that the team is hard at work on it. To that end, Lead Producer David Sirland made some comments on Twitter about the game and how fan feedback is influencing them going forward. One comment noted:
“We are pretty well informed of what things were not appreciated in the last one, the one before and the other lot. We are looking to find the best possible cherry pick strategy for each area. You’ll have to play to see what I mean.”
If this goes the way gamers want, it could mean that EA and DICE are finally learning from past mistakes and bringing together what worked before to create something special. In another Q&A post, Sirland talked about how the game would run:
“It’s never too early or too late to talk performance :). The goal is to allow for the best possible latency of gameplay at the largest of scales. We are doing things we haven’t done before to achieve that. There are more details in the labs build, and we’ll discuss specifics later on.”
So, again, the team is working hard to make the game stand out. Will it work out, though? We’ll have to wait and see.
