EA: Annual Releases Ruined Medal of Honor
EA Games president Frank Gibeau spills his guts about the failures of the Medal of Honor franchise.
By
Dustin Quillen, 05/04/2010
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Though the last few entries in the series have proven disappointing, the
Medal of Honor franchise once stood as one of the top first-person shooters out there. So what went wrong? Gamasutra
sat down with EA Games president Frank Gibeau, who shared his thoughts on the series' failures, as well as what he hopes to correct with this year's game. "I think any franchise that's been around for a long time, they get in a rut, they become over-annualized. They run out of innovation," explained the EA exec. "The team pounds on a game every year, and they get tired, they run out of time and effort to be innovative and try and take some new risks. That was my view on how the franchise has fallen."
Gibeau doesn't pin the blame solely on yearly sequels, however. "I also felt like the online component wasn't getting enough attention," Gibeau confessed. "Any shooter worth its salt is going to be really breakthrough in its online play, and I think
Battlefield: Bad Company is a good example of that, I think
Modern Warfare 2 is a good example of that, I think
Halo clearly is a good example of that. The power of a franchise in the shooter category is in the online component and modes."
It's that desire to make waves in the online space that led EA to tap the Battlefield developers at DICE for the new Medal of Honor's multiplayer component. "The DICE guys, the
Battlefield 1943 team were able to partner with our LA squad and they're doing some pretty remarkable stuff online for MOH that you guys will find out more about this summer," teased Gibeau.
Keep an eye out for more coverage of Medal of Honor as we approach its planned release later this year.
