SAN FRANCISCO — Medal of Honor is bloodied and on the floor, but Electronic Arts still has its Battlefield series to take on Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty franchise in the multi-billion dollar first-person shooter game market.
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Battlefield isn’t as successful as Call of Duty, which sees a new version every year. Battlefield has been on a cadence of every other year for a new game, alternating with Medal of Honor. But last year’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter was critically lambasted and didn’t sell much. So EA took it out of rotation. We hope to catch up with EA’s Patrick Soderlund at the EA event, so check back on our GDC coverage page for more stories this evening.
EA CEO John Riccitiello presided over the big investment in first-person shooter games, but he was fired last week for failing to meet financial performance. So it’s clear the stakes are high in this battle. Battlefield 4 is likely to debut this fall, alongside another Call of Duty. But EA has not announced a launch date yet.