EA Boss Won’t Give Up Until ‘Battlefield’ Surpasses ‘Call of Duty’; Xbox One Kinect Features Teased

Battlefield and Call of Duty have long been competing for critical acclaim and higher sales numbers, with Call of Duty coming out on top in all their match ups so far where sales are concerned. This year will see the two behemoths of the modern military shooter genre go at it again with the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4.

EA has gone on the record as saying that they embrace the competition that Activision provides witht the Call of Duty franchise, explaining that it’s great for the market, driving all parties involved to push themselves in order to best their rivals.

Speaking to MCV, EA Games boss Patrick Soderlund reiterated that point, saying that he welcomes Call of Duty‘s successes, before going on to make a more open threat to Activision that he is after their prized stallion’s head.


“Maybe they weren’t thinking about us much when we made Battlefield 3, but I can tell you, they are thinking about us now. They need too. We made a dent in the FPS market and we took share from them. And I am not going to give up until I’m No.1 and I am going to make sure I’m No.1.”

According to Game Rant’s very own poll, it looks as if Battlefield could be set to make good on that claim. After over 3,400 votes, 45% of gamers said that they will be buying Battlefield 4, while only 10% said that they will be picking up Call of Duty: Ghosts instead (if it came down to one or the other and not both).

EA and developer DICE are aiming to give Battlefield 4 players more features, some of which were inexplicably absent the last time around – from Commander Mode to enhanced customization of vehicles and weapons. Additional features of the Battlefield 4 experience are being revealed frequently and more could still be on the way as two new components were alluded to by the game’s Executive Producer Patrick Bach in a Xbox Wire Q&A. He said that on top of all the other new features currently announced for the game, DICE are looking to integrate voice commands and head tracking into the gameplay.


“Also, with Kinect, we’re looking into features that enhance the controls including peeking and leaning and tracking head movement as well as incorporating voice commands.”

There is a fine line between enhancing an experience and creating an under-realized gimmick, a problem many triple-A games embracing Kinect as a marketing point suffered from on the Xbox 360.

If the developers can figure out a way to make all of these features like voice commands, head tracking, dual screens and all the other components come together and work without a hitch, they could have a much more immersive and rich experience to offer. If not, they could just have a lot of distractions and annoyances getting in the way of BF4′s core gameplay. It’s a house of cards that the Battlefield franchise is building, one that could be great or one that could topple over if not built right and the added features don’t work well.