EA CEO Andrew Wilson views the confusion surrounding the console exclusivity of future Call of Duty titles as a “tremendous opportunity” for the Battlefield franchise.
During a technology conference call held by EA, CEO Andrew Wilson shared his thoughts on the Battlefield series, and how it could capitalize on the confusion surrounding the console exclusivity of future Call of Duty titles.
Wilson believes that Battlefield is one of the great first-person shooter franchises. He said that if one heads over to YouTube and looks up “only in Battlefield” moments, they’ll see that people have been creating these incredible moments inside of the Battlefield franchise for the longest time. He further stated that the series has well over 50 million players.
Wilson believes that DICE didn’t deliver in the last 2 iterations of the series in a way that was expected of it. There’s a lot of work that the studio and publisher have got to do there, he said. However, he said that, at its very core, Battlefield is an extraordinary IP. According to him, IP resilience has been an important factor in the world of entertainment. He gave the example of recent Star Wars movies not living up to the expectations of their franchise, but points at the turnaround that happens when the right creative team is involved, which can can completely reinvent and grow a franchise. Wilson stated that an extraordinary creative team is currently involved in the development of Battlefield, including those who have unbelievable ambitions.
The EA CEO also had some interesting remarks about the question mark on Call of Duty console exclusivity post-Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. According to Wilson, in a world where there may be questions over the future of Call of Duty and what platforms that might be on or might not be on, being platform agnostic and completely cross-platform with Battlefield is a “tremendous opportunity”.
