EA's Medal of Honor reboot is the second franchise from the publisher to challenge Activision's Modern Warfare juggernaut. The title will hit shelves roughly eight months after March's Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Can they really compete, though? Modern Warfare 2 is a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut already. EA's CEO certainly thinks so, telling Kotaku that with both series, he hopes to regain the shooter crown.
"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 [first-person-shooter], between Medal of Honor and Battlefield, I want it back. And we're going to get there with innovation and quality." John Riccitiello said. Good thing, then, that the only competing Activision shooter EA have to face next fall is Treyarch's Vietnam/Cold War-era Call of Duty installment.
"The first [Battlefield: Bad Company] did very well in its first outing," he said. "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. ... once you get past, sort of, four people on a map, I think our gameplay is better. That is a legacy of DICE and where they came from. "
"I'm a fan of a lot of our competitors' products. But if you've played Modern Warfare, and you've played the first one — and you've played the last Call of Duty — it's sort of starting to feel like they're making the same game again. And I personally think being able to control your vehicle as opposed to being able to ride on one [is good]. And I think there's something a little bit cool about taking a building out and getting the six guys in it."
Battlefield developer DICE are assisting EALA on Medal of Honor, but it's unclear if the project will continue the use of Airborne's UE3 tech, or BFBC2's Frostbite 2.0 engine. Having that little extra destruction edge over Modern Warfare might not be a bad thing.
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