Yesterday, GamesBeat reported that Electronic Arts opened a new studio named DICE L.A. in Los Angeles. The publisher told us yesterday that the team is going to work on Battlefield games. Now we know exactly which Battlefield game that is.
DICE L.A. is working on Battlefield 4. Several sites yesterday echoed a Wall Street Journal report that the developer would focus on Star Wars games. That isn’t entirely the case, according to EA.
“With regards to DICE L.A., they are an extension of DICE Sweden and are working on the same projects across both locations,” EA PR director Pete Nguyen told GamesBeat. “Both teams are 100 percent focused on Battlefield 4.”
This is similar to the arrangement Ubisoft has with its multiple studios all working on Assassin’s Creed games. For example, that publisher has six development teams listed in the credits for Assassin’s Creed III.
As for the reports that DICE L.A. will focus on Star Wars — “focus” is a bit misleading.
“We recently announced that with our Star Wars license agreement, DICE and Visceral will join BioWare in developing future Star Wars games using our Frostbite engine,” said Nguyen. “As DICE in Sweden works on Star Wars so too will DICE in L.A.”
It’s also worth noting that just about all of the people who list “DICE L.A.” as their employer on LinkedIn also worked on developer Danger Close’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
Lead artist Chris Healy, senior designer Richard Starr, senior level artist Daniel Sundberg, and lead UI designer David Sirland from Danger Close have all now moved on to take similar roles at DICE L.A.
In January, EA mothballed the Medal of Honor franchise after the last two entries in the franchise sold sluggishly compared to Call of Duty and Battlefield. It seems like Danger Close was similarly put on ice.
“Medal of Honor is on hiatus,” PR representative Tammy Levine told GamesBeat. “Some of the most passionate and talented members of that team have joined DICE L.A. Most others have moved on from EA.”