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EA and DICE Admit Battlefield 4 Launch was "Unacceptable"

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  • EA and DICE Admit Battlefield 4 Launch was "Unacceptable"

    I know your hearts are probably stopped after reading that headline, but just take a deep breath and try to soldier on through the news story, okay? Yes, EA and DICE have now admitted that Battlefield 4's launch was "unacceptable."

    In speaking with Eurogamer, EA CEO Andrew Wilson and DICE GM Karl-Magnus Troedsson have said that the game suffered due to its ambition. (Note: This is a very, very long interview. I strongly urge you to read through the full Eurogamer article yourself in addition to the cherry-picked quotes I selected below.)

    Alright, let's see where they go with this.
    Andrew Wilson:
    "Think about what Battlefield 4 was: 64 player multiplayer, giant maps, 1080p, Levolution that was changing the gameplay design in an emergent way. There is a chance there are things you are going to miss through the development cycle. And you end up in a situation we had with Battlefield 4.

    "For me, the situation we had was unacceptable. For the team it was unacceptable. We have worked tirelessly since then to make sure the gameplay experience got to where it absolutely should have been at launch and we're focused on that and we continue to deliver value to that player base.

    "But when you do things like that you can never guarantee. It would be disingenuous for me to sit here and say, 'we will never have an issue again,' because that would mean we were never going to push the boundaries again. And I don't want to be that company. I want to be a company that pushes to lead and innovate and be creative. But you can start to do things that give you a better handle and a better view about what the potential challenges might be."

    Wilson continued on to say that EA is now trying to get the "final" version of the game finished earlier in order to give the developers more time to test and iron out bugs and issues.
    "You can lengthen development cycles," he said. "You can give a much longer timeframe between final and launch to get a lot more testing on the game. You can change the development process whereby you have more stable build requirements throughout the entire set of development. You can start betas earlier so you get it out in the wild earlier with more people banging away at it.

    "We have changed development processes, we've changed development timelines and we've changed testing processes and beta processes, all with a view to not have the issues again."

    Wilson has also denied the claim that EA rushed the game in order to launch alongside the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. He also goes on to take a swipe against the Call of Duty franchise by saying that EA could either "play it safe" or push boundaries with Battlefield 4.
    "You could go down the really conservative path, which some people did in the industry, and your game didn't have any of those problems, but you also got the feedback of, it just feels the same as it used to.

    "Or, you could push the boundaries and end up in the situation we ended up in. Neither is good. But I would like to be in the company pushing the boundaries."

    You are probably asking yourself, "what boundaries did you try to push, especially from Battlefield 3?" Don't worry, we have no idea either.

    Both EA and DICE are hopeful when it comes to Battlefield: Hardline as that game has had three years of development time. Three years to make a game that is still Battlefield 4 at heart, with half the player count. Pushing boundaries but scaling things back and removing features.

    Troedsson says that EA has not forced the company to make a Battlefield game every year.
    "There's not a rule set in place in any way. It's up to us. Me and my responsibility and then the games we want to do. I'm not shying away from the fact there is a business we need to run in the background, and having a successful Battlefield game every year instead of every other year, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that's a positive, right?

    "But I would never commit to something like that unless we feel we can deliver those games, something that feels like a good Battlefield game, it's a true Battlefield game and is something we believe is right for our customers."

    That's great! Just game some time off to whip up some fresh, new ideas. Perhaps to dig deep on remaining engine issues. Maybe some extended time for testing. Take a few years off from a new Battlefield. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!
    "We'll have to wait and see what happens in the future," Troedsson said. "The latest games we have launched have been in the window we're talking about now for this game as well, but we'll see what makes sense in the future and what kind of ideas we come up with."

    Oh.
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