Electronic Arts have defended all of the pokes and prods that the company having at Activision’s Call of Duty series in the lead-up to the launch of both Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, saying that they are only having “a bit of fun”.
EA’s Frank Gibeau , speaking to Eurogamer at E3 this year, said “Everybody loves a heavyweight fight. All the fanfare and pomp and circumstance that goes into it is good for customers and good for the industry. It brings a lot of new attentions to things. It forces innovation in terms of the category. It gets customers to choose. So from our perspective, we're at our best in these types of situations and we enjoy them, perversely. We're having a bit of fun with it. Over the years I've worked on the sports business, too, with FIFA versus PES. It helps keep the business and industry vibrant and driving forward as opposed to getting stale and, 'Boy, there haven't been any good movies out this summer,' type situations. The competition is great for innovation."
EA have made some bold claims in recent months regarding the superiority of Battlefield 3 when compared to the Call of Duty series, with EA’s CEO specifically saying of BF 3 “This game is designed to take that game [Modern Warfare] down”. Activision representatives have previously stated that EA talks more about Modern Warfare 3 in the media than Acti does, going so far as to thank them for the exposure.
Brett Venter
