I think this is when junk, in a very official capacity, “gets real”.
Apparently one of the bigger trends in the industry these days is for game developers to call out other game developers in a no holds barred type of way, causing the blogosphere to erupt in a collective chorus of “oh snap”. The most recent edition of this would have to be Battlefield 3 wranglers DICE, who in the upcoming issue of the Official Playstation Magazine has dropped notice to its competitors.
Here’s what general manager of DICE Karl-Magnus Troedsson (or should it be Trollson?) had to say.
Our competitors are getting lazy. They’re using the same engine, the same recipe for building a game. At some point you need to take that leap. I haven’t seen them take that leap since a long time ago. We are doing that now. They had better watch out. We are coming for them.
This seems specifically aimed at Call of Duty, which is everyone’s favorite target these days. While it makes for a funny quote, I don’t think anybody is going to knock Activision’s shooter off of its sales throne anytime soon. Honestly, my attitude toward this kind of statement is that I wish guys would just be quiet and make awesome games.
What do you guys think about stuff like this? Are you rooting for DICE and Battlefield 3? Do you want them to keep their mouths shut? Go!
Source – CVG
Lol. The games are FPS’s for fuck sakes. I’m sure anyone who posts here gets it. They’re counting on tweets, blogs and angry facebook remix clips to “stir the pot”. Just make a good game and we’ll pay for it, God damnit.
When did video games become rap 🙁
I find that generally it is pretty excellent for publicity to try to stir up the controversy that comes with verbally flipping off a competing franchise. Typically these call-outs end in the guys at the receiving end completely ignoring the attack while the guys throwing down just kinda stand in one place doing pelvic thrusts in the air hoping to impress people with their balls (which they hope everybody thinks are huge now). This seems like less of the typical caveman-esque attack that we usually see though, since saying that everybody needs to move on to better engines is somewhat of a valid viewpoint to convey and that wasn’t a terribly hostile way to convey it aside from the last part, though it seems kind of ironic when it’s coming from a development team making a sequel in a pretty large franchise… go for original coding, not original games I guess.
I’m rooting for DICE, sure, but I don’t like seeing developers I admire stoop so low and start throwing these childish insults at the COD studios. I agree with him, the IW remnants need to do something or Treyarch by their next installment or I’m done, but the line “They had better watch out. We are coming for them.”? Seriously? Least threatening threat I’ve heard for quite some time. You want good publicity? Show some trailers with in-game footage (which they did after two VERY blurry ones). Show us some features of multiplayer. SHOW US SOME LOVE! Or something.
Just do it cleverly like the “F.R.A.G.S.” video if you want to get a dig in at your competitor. Damned trends. Rant over.
While they have a point, and I do like the little bit of drama; they really need to back it up with actual innovation themselves and take a “leap.” Battlefield games have been pretty much similar for a long while now, are they themselves switching anything up? Maybe these rivalries will promote more diversity and risk taking in the future which can lead to both better and newer ip’s and ideas that just don’t fly in practice. Overall I think that competition like this is more positive than negative, as long as the developers can back up what they are saying.
This reminds me of the East Coast/West Coast hip hop wars.
Seriously, except for rap music and Oasis, most artists in movies, books and music are pretty respectful of each other.
This is pretty low-brow if you ask me. DICE can talk all they want, but Black Ops, for all it’s sameness, broke tons of records.
Apparently, it’s what people want. Even though I feel rather guilty every time I fall for a Call of Duty, I always have a blast playing it.
DICE should stick to making the best game possible and leave the trash talk to us Internet Trolls.
Like Eddy on a podcast.
I gotta say, although I’m not a fan of devs making these kinda comments, he’s completely right. Not since COD4 has the Call of Duty series changed engines or made any great gameplay strides. And as a developer this must be frustrating because you see them making all the money when you and others are doing more innovating things.
While it I don’t think it was really appriopriate to come out for DICE to say this (I agree that they should just keep quiet and make awesome games Eddy) but DICE are correct in what they say.
I find it hilarious that game developers are starting to act so childish. As if fan boys weren’t already having their own wars already. In my class the Ps3 fanboys have a stupid debate with the xbox 360 fan boys over which console rocks. Its stupid. But maybe its just human nature. And for the record I like Halo. 😉
I know you guys think it’s childish, but I think it’s what the industry needs. Look at it this way: you’ve got two kind of developers anymore: the kind that innovate, like DICE tries to do with hardcore shooters and what People Can Fly/Epic Games did with Bulletstorm, and the kind like Activision that just milk us for all we’ve got for more of the same. No one can threaten Activision with Call of Duty because they’re so famous, but EA/DICE are the only ones with games large enough and good enough to compete with them. If EA/DICE doesn’t challenge them, they’re going to make the same CoD with the same engine over and over again. I thought that wouldn’t be the case a few years back, and then the last 4 CoD’s came out and they still try to get us for $15 with a 4 map pack and RDR can release a full out single-player expansion that is a much better experience and lasts longer, for $10. If a company like DICE doesn’t challenge them this is only going to continue. So while I am a little bit sad my favorite shooter dev came down to this, I’m happy it might start to get a message to Activision, especially with Battlefield’s growing fanbase.