Pages Menu
TwitterRssFacebook


Categories Menu

Posted by on Jan 31, 2013 in Opinion | 7 comments

Could Bad Company 3 Replace Medal of Honor?

Could Bad Company 3 Replace Medal of Honor?

EA has been trying to find the right pieces of the puzzle to compete with Call of Duty for some time now. Battlefield 3 saw major success in 2011 (going up against Modern Warfare 3) but 2010’s Medal of Honor and 2012’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter didn’t quite live up to expectations with the latter severely underperforming.

With the recent news that the Medal of Honor franchise is being taken out of EA’s rotation of games, the question becomes: What will fill that void? Or will EA try to fill it at all? I believe that they will, and a good way to do so would be to get Battlefield Bad Company 3 on store shelves.

The Battlefield Bad Company series consists of two games, the first released in 2008, and the second in 2010, which took a more comedic approach to the modern shooter genre. The games focus on B Company, or “Bad Company” as they called themselves, a group of misfits and troublemakers that the army uses as cannon fodder.

The plot of the games and the characters (especially the dialogue) are great and the games make full use of the highly destructible environments in the Frostbite engine. Both games were met with critical acclaim and good sales numbers but a third installment was never announced.

With the Medal of Honor series being put on hold, could EA take the opportunity to continue the Bad Company series? It could take the place of Medal of Honor and be a way that EA won’t have to annualize the Battlefield series to compete with the yearly Call of Duty title that we are so used to.

Bad Company 3

If EA does go through with this (or something like this), it will be important that the humor and characterization of the Bad Company series stays intact. The Battlefield/Medal of Honor shuffle that EA did was only because EA believed the two experiences to be different enough to warrant it. Bad Company and the main Battlefield series are different enough but it needs to stay that way.

In case you are wondering how likely this is, I would say it is at least crossing the minds of the team at EA. Bad Company 3 has been brought up to EA spokespersons on several occasions and while they never announced anything, they have said that the series is well loved at EA and a viable avenue of approach in the future.

With today’s announcement that a new Battlefield game will come out in 2014, this could open up the door for Bad Company 3 in 2015 or, if rumors that it’s already being developed are true, later this year. I don’t believe that Bad Company 3 is going to be hitting store shelves this year but I could definitely see EA trying to roll it out in 2015.

As a fan of the series I would love to see more Bad Company games made, and from a business standpoint it might be the right move for EA. The biggest problem will be figuring out how to develop the two titles simultaneously since they both came from the same development team. The Medal of Honor games were developed by Danger Close but both Battlefield 3 and the Bad Company games were developed by DICE. This little wrinkle puts a bit of a damper on the theory but it doesn’t make it impossible. EA could still look for a new development team or possibly split the DICE team up to make it happen.

Either way, I believe that we will see Bad Company 3 at some point, but what remains to be seen is if it will take Medal of Honor’s place or if it will be implemented into the plan somewhere else.

What do you think of this theory? Is there any chance that Bad Company 3 will take over for Medal of Honor? Or will EA try something completely different? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on our forums.

 

My Twitter profileMy Google+ profile

James Pungello

Editor in Chief
I'm a 24 year old graduate of Fordham University who loves gaming and loves writing about it. Feel free to e-mail me at james.pungello@vgu.tv

Latest posts by James Pungello (see all)

  • dakan45

    How about dice gtfo and let someone else do it, someone with proper netcode and good singleplayer?

    • DarthDiggler

      Proper netcode? Are you kidding me? Who does better netcode than Dice? Treyarch? LOL The dedicated server system in Battlefield 3 is the envy of all crappy console hosted games.

      • http://twitter.com/thatzacdavis Zac Davis

        I just wish that the dedicated server from BF3 on consoles worked a bit better. That couple with framerate issues killed the game for me on XBox.

      • dakan45

        “Who does better netcode than Dice?”

        AHAHAHAHHAHHA

        Ask any bf veteran, dice netcode sucks balls. Since 2003.

        There is hit delay, google it, battlefield hit delay

  • DarthDiggler

    Thank you for reporting this as your speculation (with good reasoning) and not just trying to pass it off as news. :)

    KUDOS! I would like to see BFBC3 come back in a major way, but they would have to create some real differentiators in the series besides the few gameplay differences. For one the online game type are very similar to Battlefield 3, they should dovetail each other and have modes unique to each other.

    Honestly thought I don’t think MOH is done as a series, I think the developers for MOH just haven’t given that series enough uniqueness. The newer one isn’t that bad and offers game modes you don’t find in BF3.

    • http://twitter.com/jamespungello James Pungello

      Thanks! I agree that MOH wasn’t as bad as people seem to think (I gave it a 7 when I reviewed it) but it certainly wasn’t what EA was looking for. Simply from a campaign standpoint the humor and characters in the BC series definitely differentiate it but mp wise it would need some fresh ideas

  • Doomlord

    do not forget, Call of Duty creators West and Zampella have started their own studio (Respawn Entertainment) and are making their own game under EA, that could be what’s replacing MoH.