Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson made a series of controversial statements in the company’s latest earnings call, with potential in-game announcements and commentary about the next Battlefield raising some eyebrows.
Battlefield may not be the Call of Duty rival that has previously been followed by a string of divisive releases, but Wilson was keen to tease the next entry in the wide-ranging, level-headed series. “I just spent a whole bunch of time with the Battlefield team,” He says Wilson, jokingly describes the next game as “another tremendous live service.”
Battlefield hasn’t embraced the live service as heavily as Call of Duty or Destiny, but the seasonal updates and battle passes certainly make the last few shooters eligible. However, coming off the tumultuous launches of Battlefield 5 and Battlefield 2042, I don’t know if the series has got “another massive live service” to brag about, whatever that might mean nowadays.
Regardless, Wilson still boasts that “the largest Battlefield team in franchise history” will “build out the Battlefield universe across multiplayer and single-player experiences.” Dead Space remake developers EA Motive have just been set to work on Battlefield – leaving the popular horror series in limbo – while the studio set up to focus on single-player Battlefield experiences has shut down.
Whatever the next Battlefield looks like, it’s not in the publisher’s plans for this fiscal year ending March 2025. However, an original EA game and its IP will be available soon – likely Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
Perhaps most controversial were Wilson’s comments about the implementation of advertising in traditional AAA games. “Ads have an opportunity to be an important growth driver for us,” he continued, “…We have internal teams in the company now looking at how we can make very thoughtful executions within our gaming experiences.”
2020’s UFC 4 included full-screen ads for Amazon Prime TV show The Boys, a decision that had to be reversed after fan backlash. Several other EA games have also experimented with advertising in the past, such as 2004’s Need For Speed: Underground 2, where the company painted ads on the side of in-game billboards. Getting unwanted ads on the side of the road is part of the driving experience, so I prefer that to in-game pop-ups.
Wilson also claimed that developers have a “genuine thirst” for applying AI in game development.
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