At an annual investors briefing, EA reveals it almost shot down the World War I pitch from DICE for Battlefield 1 before eventually greenlighting the project.

Battlefield fans were pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when EA and DICE finally pulled back the curtain on the next game in the long running franchise known as Battlefield 1. While most first person shooters are trending into the future, Battlefield 1 is doing the opposite by taking players back into the past to experience World War I. As excited as the fan base appears to be thanks to the change in setting, it was very close to not happening if a certain EA executive had his way.

At EA's annual Investor Day briefing, EA Studios boss Patrick Soderlund revealed that he initially rejected the pitch brought to him by DICE to develop a Battlefield game set in World War I. Soderlund believed that trench warfare wasn't all that exciting, especially when most of the competition is advancing more towards adding science fiction elements. DICE continue to persist and pitch the idea, eventually convincing Soderlund to greenlight the idea.

"[World War 1] wasn't the most obvious choice. If you look at what other partners in the industry are doing, they're going into sci-fi; we've had a lot of success in the modern military space. But we felt like there was a need for a change."

According to DICE, the team is looking to at the very least challenge many of the preconceptions about World War I, including Soderlund's belief that it was all just trench warfare. Andrew Wilson, Electronic Art's CEO, has already come out and revealed that Battlefield 1 will have a deep story and the most innovative gameplay the franchise has ever seen thanks in part to the Frostbite engine powering everything.

There's still a lot that isn't known about Battlefield 1, but thanks to the debut trailer, fans have been able to make some educated guesses. Based on what was seen, it appears that players will jump around to different points in the war as dogfights with bi-planes were shown, desert warfare on horseback, and of course, iconic Zeppelins were also seen during the impressive trailer.

Thankfully, E3 2016 is right around the corner, so hopefully many of these lingering questions will be answered during EA Play, a new event that EA is instead taking advantage of this year instead of their normal E3 presser. Their conference begins on Sunday, June 12, so fans will want to tune in to undoubtedly see Battlefield 1 in action for the first time.

Are you excited about the possibilities of a new era in Battlefield or are you more interested in the futuristic settings of other shooters? Sound off in our comment section below.

Battlefield 1 is set for release on October 17, 2016 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Source: GameSpot