Remember last year when EA CEO John Riccitiello came out and said Battlefield 3 is better than Call of Duty in almost every meaningful way? That was one of many examples of the EA shooter franchises going to war again Activision’s Call of Duty series, even if some (including EA’s own Danger Close Games) didn’t want to partake in the shenanigans.
Well, here we go again. It’s the next round of EA vs. Call of Duty. After Activision debuted the very first gameplay trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II last night, someone from EA took some obligatory shots at the unveiling.
Electronic Arts global product manager Kevin O’Leary went on Twitter this morning and called out Black Ops 2 as looking “tired,” without clarification. While I hate seeing hypocrisy (more on this later), I love industry people speaking their mind and firing up the competition. It’s fun!
Hopefully, EA doesn’t try to pretend this didn’t happen or cover it up, like when they took down an EA interview with Dead Space story producer Chuck Beaver where he bashed the story/writing of the Gears of War series.
So, I have three (two and a half, really) views on this. Some will say it’s immature to keep this feud going and to have EA reps and execs taking shots at a franchise they’re trying so hard to compete with. That’s secondary for me. It’s good to have competition and even better to have people keeping each other honest – people speaking their mind (when justified) is great, and better yet, it’s entertaining. What bothers me about this, and here’s where I’m going to call Kevin O’Leary out, is that this statement is entirely hypocritical.
Note the part of the tweet where he recommends the game should take a “year off and rest.” He’s referring to the common criticism of the Call of Duty games coming out annually, but what many don’t realize is that EA is doing the exact same thing.
Call of Duty comes out annually, yes, but that does not mean there’s a one-year development cycle on each. There are multiple developers alternating so there are 2+ years of development on each. Earlier in the CoD series, Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare titles) and Treyarch (World at War, Black Ops) simply traded years. Now, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software help with each respective developer to make the games.
It’s hypocritical for anyone at EA to say what O’Leary did because they’re doing the exact same thing. Medal of Honor and Battlefield are alternating years going forward. By all accounts, when support for Battelfield 3 ends in 12-18 months, Battlefield 4 or Bad Company 3 could be out next fall. Medal of Honor: Warfighter comes out this fall, after its predecessor debuted in 2010. Crysis 3? Coming out two years after Crysis 2. Heck, even Mass Effect 3 only came out two years after Mass Effect 2. And let’s not even get into EA Sports titles or the annualized Need for Speed releases…
So, Kevin, all of EA’s big franchises are coming out with the same dev cycle and their modern shooters are embracing the same model employed by Activision. The difference is that from comparing the first installments of what’s coming from each publisher this year, Black Ops dominated Medal of Honor critically and from a sales standpoint in 2010. And so far, the Black Ops 2 trailer looks more promising, varied and different than the Medal of Honor: Warfighter trailer (watch it and see). And that’s where things get interesting.
The last few Call of Duty games have rightfully taken criticism for not doing much different or innovative. The multiplayer components have only been tweaked versions of previous installments and the games have lacked on the co-op front. It’s become stale and needs to be refreshed. For the first time in a while however, the new Call of Duty actually looks different. And this isn’t because of the future 2025 setting. It’s because of the new features, the player decisions, branching storylines, differing game endings, non-linear sandbox play and more.
Where O’Leary is right though is in the game’s graphics. The Black Ops 2 trailer showcased dated visuals, despite Treyarch’s promise of a visual overhaul and 60FPS. It still looks old vs. what the Frostbite 2 engine brings to Battlefield 3 or what the latest CryENGINE does for Crysis 3.
Despite all their aggressive PR tactics in calling out faults of Call of Duty, EA still has not managed to top their games with any of their shooter franchises: The latest installments Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Crysis - albeit successful in their own right – are all significantly behind the last three Call of Duty games in sales.
But EA knows this and it’s all part of their long-term plan to chip away at the success and market dominance of the Call of Duty brand. Let’s see what happens at E3.
Loading ...Call of Duty: Black Ops II releases November 13, 2012 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
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Source: Kevin O’Leary
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I think it’s just childish more than anything – An enormous mob of illiterate children (I hope they’re all children for their sake anyway) will do this job for them anyway without fail… Activision, as much as I dislike them, have been much more mature regarding this marketing aspect. And I don’t think it looks ‘tired’ at all – MW3 did, but Treyarch have become really innovative – A multi-choice campaign (Unlike BF3′s poor shooting gallery) and a new future setting that allows for plenty of creative license in terms of authenticity as well. Zombies is getting an overhaul – and the same has been hinted at multiplayer. I love BF3, don’t get me wrong – but it has it’s own problems – It’s less polished than Cod, albeit more ambitious.
I agree with everything (except the labeling of COD’s fanbase – which includes ALL gamers, heh)
I didn’t make myself 100% clear when I mentioned ‘illiterate children’, sorry. I was talking about those idiots who go onto Cod videos just to dislike them and leave a generic ‘Cod sucks BF3 FTW’ comment, when all they’re really after is a bit of attention anyway.. There’s no need for an EA representative to do that – these immature idiots have it covered..
I don’t like how Treyarch are being bundled into the ‘lazy, stale Cod developer’ stereotype that has become the trend recently – Treyarch have never been hesitant to innovate, and often times their additions are shunned by the next IW iteration – such as weighted assists and the assist/kill system they had for Last Stand in the Black Ops patch. These were ignored in MW3 – I couldn’t understand it. I think this next game will be very impressive, despite what those who hate the series may say.
Ah, trolls. They’re the worst.
Fire is their weakness (read that in my travels through Skyrim).
There are a few problems with your statement here. 1: Your calling BF3 a shooting gallery of COD. 2: oyur calling BF3 less polished than COd (which has weapons on both poles of the power spectrum, but none in between) 3: The window for authenticity in the futuristic fps genre closed after Reach
I agree with what your saying man, and the way I see it is you can’t even compare BF3 and CoD. Also I think they need to go back to the drawing boards with Black Ops 2, they ruined Black Ops for me. The futuristic genre is too full right now, we got Halo trying to makes it’s comeback. And Crysis 3 is looking quite promising, I fail to see how Treyarch will be able to innovate something that Halo, Crysis, or any other futuristic game hasn’t done before. But alas Black Ops 2 will sale, just because it has CoD slapped on it. As far as MoH Warfighter goes, Black Ops 2 will sale more but it all comes down to reception, and I predict MoH will fare alot better than CoD this year. In conclusion, I’m pre-ordering MoH Warfighter, so far based on what I’ve seen I have no interest in picking up CoD this year.
Pretty good point, I agree with you.
try harder
the “world settings ” u said is a more copy past from the metal gear franchises
i HATE ea in every single possible way but this guy is right CoD NEED a rest
every single year the same s*** just like fifa nothing changes.
and i must pay 60 bucks for the same game evey year ? hell no
they should take a break and come back after 2-3 years to see a real difference..like the jump bf2 to bf3
u may hate BF3 i dont care but the online,graphics,sound and realism surpass cod in every single possible way and fanboys or not wh denie that are nothing more than haters closed minded fangirls kkthxbb
@alba
“and i must pay 60 bucks for the same game evey year ?”
If that is such an issue, then don’t purchase until 2-3 years later. Why does the game have to not come out?
Pleeeeaaase enlighten me.
Looks like somebody is a little scared. Medal of Honor Warfighter comes out October October 23rd, just a month before Black Ops 2 comes out. EA may be a little scared about this.
Yeah.. It was nice to get that rant out of my system, I must say!
I think it’s immature as well as hypocritical but hey, someone will always have something to say. Haters is gonna hate regardless but as long as the others are having fun with Black Ops 2 or whatever game, that’s all that matters. I mean Black apps 2 could have had a new engine and people would still flame the franchise just because it’s so popular, smh. That’s just how it goes.
Aw, he’s just got sand in his vagina because call of duty makes more money than battlefield. Hey, remember recently when ea censored some sod for saying bad things about gears of war?
COD is great and all, so don’t get me wrong, but making more money does not always mean it’s better.
wjat about gears of wars ?
its just a simple third person shooter with one the top 3 most horrible stories in the video game industry this gen
either u like it or not.
uncharted —->gears of wars,nomitaions shows that,awards shows that,story shows that, i wont bother mentioning graphics cause we all know the answer there
No doubt the previous two COD installments were nothing new and just the same things again, and the multiplayer is waste of time and graphics were only sub-par. But Blackops 2 looks somewhat refreshing and I hope they did something with mutiplayer, and graphics looks just plain. if they dont bring any radical changes with this new installment I think COD will be loosing ppl to BF which is better at graphics and multiplayer although it sucks in gameplay and story telling.
EA, just shut up already. Nobody cares anymore.
I will say, I’m not suprised by Warfighter but Black Ops 2 looks good. I can’t make a full decision until I see more. This year might be payback for Treyarch after what Riccitiello said about them last year.
I really love where this game is going, but please, Activision, use a new engine! Anyways, pre-ordered.
I hope this is what Infinity Ward is doing after finishing the Modern Warfare 3 trilogy. With the next generation of consoles on the way, I think they need to.
You guys should ask for funding from Activision.
How about a Tera review or something. Aren’t you guys tired of the CoD crap? Or are you just doing it for hits?
Lol, there’s info about the game not on the site, we gotta get it up. There are two choices: Not cover the biggest game of the year, or cover it.
I don’t recall a comment about asking for EA/BioWare “funding” during our extensive ME3 coverage, or from Bethesda when Skyrim came out.
I dunno this eclipses anything you guys did on Skyrim. plus Skyrim doesn’t come out every year with a different title. Every year a new CoD title comes out. This site doesn’t stop posting about it. 5 of the last 6 articles is something about BO2.
As for ME3, I never played any of the games. So I chalked it up to me not understanding because I hadn’t played any of them.
And every year Call of Duty is one of the industry’s biggest releases. Check out the day AC3 was announced and how many articles we did on it as we learned the details. Samesies for GTAV.
It’s our job to share, dissect and analyze the info on these huge games, and we’re not going to stop.
I applaud you for for humoring this individual… I’m positive you this: “Fanboys will be Fanboys… haters will be haters” They complain about everything
Eclipses by how much? Did you actually do any math or are you just responding emotionally to a franchise you personally don’t like?
Have you been talking to the people who complained about the extensive ME3 coverage? Oh wait, that game is from EA. So I guess your point is totally moot.
I don’t know what you mean. I know there’s sarcasm in there I just can’t tell what it’s about.
Yes, a gaming news site is NOT going to cover recent news on the biggest game of the YEAR. I envy your intelligence sir.
Who exactly should GameRant be payrolled by? You’re implying Activision because of I guess the plethora of CoD coverage. That explains itself because it draws hits and that is the point, to cover where the attention merits. The only other discernible reason would be, and this is even more out of left field, “EA bashing.” If you don’t like the news, don’t read it. But don’t try to imply that they have some kind of secret agenda, because that’s just silly.
@ Deric
Yeah because intelligence has anything to do with it, glad I know anything related to intelligence and you have nothing in common. How about just taking it as I said it. They should ask for funding because 8 out of the last 10 articles have been about CoD, Sorry If I came to a game site looking for multiple articles about multiple games. Guess I just F*cked up when I typed it out, you know someone will low intelligence and all, it happens often. :/
@ TaboriHK
I’ll be the first to admit I prefer games to not get stagnant. So you could say I don’t like CoD.
They did cover Skyrim well, the game deserved it. This game deserves it for the wrong reasons. No I did not go back and count, I was merely complaining, other GOOD games came out and no coverage, but a new CoD comes out! Stop the presses! OMG they took out 1 gun! My god 3 new textures! This CoD is going to have nuclear zombies from heaven! Rumor has it the NEXT one is going to be called WHITE OPS!!111!!1!!one1!!
You catch my meaning? Probably not.
Besides, I never wanted my post to hurt your feelings, I just want other game coverage put in between some of the many many many posts about CoD.
Clearly I thought they should GET funding from them, as in they do not have it already but should be getting it!
So basically you are throwing a hissy fit because what you like is not as popular as what a much larger group of people likes and you’re being a sarcastic jerk about it. Got it right the first time.
Because my comment was “hissy fit”… My comment was pretty reasonable, I’d say. You’re the one attacking me here. You’re the freaking out because someone else has a different opinion.
Nice troll.
Yuuchun,
Some of your comments are bordering on the edge of mean-spirited so I’ll ask you to take a look at all of the news we posted yesterday, today and the days leading up.
This isn’t a Call of Duty site, but most news regarding Call of Duty games fall under something we (and most sites) do cover. This is why I’m confused. Are you only reading our Call of Duty posts? Are you asking us not to cover it as much? You don’t have to read what you don’t want to read. By saying what you’re saying though, you’re really discrediting all of our team’s work covering this game and everything else we do.
And for the record, one of our staff is playing Tera for review.
I didn’t mean to come across as mean spirited.
Seemed like allot of posts to me, about 1 game were split up. I know they all held different information, but they all came out in quick succession, makes me wonder if in cases such as this, couldn’t the posts be combined? Like “All the Black ops II news in one spot! [date/time]” So as to not drown out the other news you guys post?
Looking forward to the Tera review.
Really, I don’t care that CoD releases annually. But EA should be mad at Activision for this specific release. They should be lawsuit angry. Why? Because of Battlefield 2142.
The new Activision title looks exactly like the 2006 title from EA, as if they took actual gameplay footage from EA and posted it as their own. It even looks to lack a graphics update.
I love Battlefield 2142!
I want that game re-done with Frostbite 2 and more weapons.
LOOOL totally agree there, 2142 with Frostbite engine !!! epic win! Not this…w/e engine blops/mw uses just to rehash the textures and put BF 2142 in it and sell it buy another name…not how it works
So because COD is set in 2025 theyy are copying 2142?? So I suppose any game set within the same time frame or within 25 years of each other is copying? Spider-Abu, you and many others have some very poor arguments. Just bashing COD any reason.
@Muchoman798
With your logic, publishers would be sueing left and right! Do you know how many modern military fps’ there are? A futuristic military fps is just too broad to sue for.
personally I am not excited nor do care the slightest for BO2. If the development cycle is two years maybe they should take three, work on a new engine, get some fresh ideas into the system. All my crits of COD can be applied to the majority of FPS games, and games in general. I know each one makes a ton of money but if activision keeps cranking this stuff out people are going to get tired of it, which they are. We have more or less been doing the same stuff since the last console generation. Come on people, let it breathe a little
“Take a break Activision, give us a chance.” – Kevin O’Leary
Desperate much?
FAIL
Well technically they did take year off. Treyrch developing this game not Activision
Some Trolling comment…. I guess I’m the odd one out here. I play these games for the story first and the Multiplayer second. So I’m looking forward to the non-liner game play. That’s what I didn’t like about the past few COD games. You don’t pick your path you just run straight and kill everything for 4 hours. I hope the story is as good as the first BlackOPs. One thing I can say I like about Treyrch is that they do a good job of basing the story real things.
I remember back when it was adults making games for kids that adults played… now it’s children making games for adults that children play.
Neither I, nor my kids are impressed with the state of modern gaming.
Rob, I value your opinion greatly on this whole thing. Though EA does make some points they don’t seem to make anything different from what Activision is doing. Seems their more concerned about how their game’s graphics look than how the game plays out.
Obviously y’all don’t understand that the greater the competition between two titles, the better the games that are produced. BF3 brought some great new ideas to the table that COD would be stupid to ignore. They can’t keep on going on with no new ideas, it’s just boring. Great game, but just not interesting anymore, sorry. Just because COD makes more money, doesn’t mean that it is a better title. I have nothing against COD, but I hope that the competition will at least revive some of the excitement and interest we had in it from the fourth and sixth title and bring out great ideas in both games.
EA has no right to bag on any other company, they must have forgot that they are considered one of the worst companies in the United States, next to a bank. Between all the ME3 scandals and the overhyping of how great BF3 was going to be they have no right. At least the creators of COD don’t try to paint their games as something their not.
@KevinJOLeary poor #Battlefield3 you look tired, maybe you should stop trying to steal the limelight
dont worry, i gave some bite back