DICE aiming for "12-18 months of value" for BF3
Sounds like DICE intends to provide Battlefield 3 players for as long as possible, with CEO Patrick Bach telling VG247 it intends to give up to "12-18 months" worth of value in the shooter.
DICE has the game's second expansion multiplayer Close Quarters this June. That's to be followed up by Armored Kill this fall and End Game towards the end of the year. This is after the release of the Back to Karkand expansion last December.
Speaking at last week's EA European Showcase, Bach, who's temping as studio CEO while full-time studio boss Karl-Magnus Troedsson is on paternity leave, told Sam Clay that support could extend into 2013.
Word to the wise, though: that could just mean updates, fixing things and that rather than new expansions.
"It's really hard for me to make bets on how the market will look at Medal of Honor vs Battlefield vs other shooters," said Bach when answering a question on the now rotating yearly releases between Medal of Honor and Battlefield within EA.
"We at DICE, we only focus on Battlefield. We make sure that if you're a Battlefield player, there should be plenty of Battlefield for you to spend your days on. And again, we are focusing on giving you 12-18 months of value for Battlefield 3 and the expansion packs we're releasing.
"So I can't really say anything about the other tactics about releasing other games because we are DICE, we do Battlefield."
But could that timeline of up to 18 months extend into two years ahead of an expected new Battlefield game?
"Right now, we haven't had that planned out yet," said Bach.
"Depending on what happens, we'll change things and add to it. We're very keen on listening to the community and we read all the forums and posts, we make sure we implement any changes that need to be implemented and of course validate through data.
"We have a lot of statistics going on in Battlefield, so we know exactly what's happening."
EA's main shooter effort for the Christmas period will be Medal of Honor: Warfighter in October. Last time round, DICE was heavily involved in creating the game's multiplayer while Danger Close made the single-player arc.
This time, DICE isn't involved with the game directly bar "the odd tips and tricks" with Frostbite 2 in Warfighter after the engine's stunning debut in Battlefield 3 last year. Bach said DICE's focus with Battlefield was "slightly different" when compared to Danger Close's real-world events in Medal of Honor.
"I'm not involved in that project directly, so I don't know what exactly their focus is when it comes to the details. I know they are focusing a lot on the more connecting it to real-world events, which we're not what we're trying to do at all.
"I think our focus is slightly different from a high-level perspective. Of course, they are using the Frostbite 2 engine as well so there will be some similarities, of course. But in general, it's just a different game."
Battlefield 3: Close Quarters launches this June first on PS3. 360 and PC releases follow a week later. Watch for a video interview on the pack this afternoon.