EA Initially Rejected Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 is taking a different path than other war games in that it’s being set in World War 1. As EA Studios boss, Patrick Söderlund notes though at the investor briefing yesterday, that pitch didn’t go over well at first.
“It wasn’t the most obvious choice,” Söderlund said. “When the team presented to me the idea of World War 1 I absolutely rejected it. I said ‘World War 1 is a trench war, it can’t be fun to play’.”
But the team at DICE didn’t give up, and soon show the boss a demo of their vision:
“The team continued and persisted in the fact that this can be fun, and showed up with a very short demo that convinced me at least that this was the right path. The good news is whenever you take creative risks and it works, you actually can get to substantial success.”
The trailer for Battlefield 1 seems to share that notion, as it’s one of the most liked game trailers on Youtube. That being said, Soderlund isn’t ready to jump the gun on what it’ll do sales wise:
“I think that the World War 1 theme is resonating with players out there, I think we have done something that will be right for the franchise and right for EA [but] we have to remember that so far we’ve only shown one trailer, and yes it’s gotten a lot of success, but what’s important is now we have to go back and make sure we deliver on the full promise of what Battlefield can be – and that we will do.”
Battlefield 1 releases October 21st.