Yesterday, Electronic Arts demonstrated it had some balls by revealing that the new Medal of Honor game was going to be set in Afghanistan. While some may view this as a cynical way of following in Activision’s footsteps, EA boss John Riccitiello has other plans — he’s aiming to rip Activision from its gilded FPS throne.
“I’m not saying it’s going to happen tomorrow, but in the way that Activision sort of alternates sequels of Modern Warfare and Call of Duty and owns the leadership position in FPS, between Medal of Honor and Battlefield, I want it back,” states the silver-haired champion. “And we’re going to get there with innovation and quality.”
“The first [Bad Company] did very well in its first outing. The next one is a heck of a lot better and it looks like a worthy competitor to Modern Warfare. We think we’ve got an advantage over Modern Warfare 2 with our multiplayer … Frankly, once you get past, sort of, four people on a map, I think our gameplay is better.”
Anybody who stands up to evil publisher Activision gets a thumbs-up from me, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how EA’s two-pronged attack fares. Still, you’re going to need a heck of a lot more than innovation and quality to take down a beast as mighty as the Call of Duty franchise. More than a little luck is going to be needed to see that fight through.
