DICE Underestimated Console Gamers with Battlefield Bad Company, Says Director

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Battlefield developer DICE learned several lessons from its first significant foray into console gaming with last year's Battlefield: Bad Company, not the least of which was to never underestimate the skill level of console gamers.

"I think one of our biggest mistakes with Battlefield: Bad Company.. was that when we started making it, laying out the plans, the view on the gamer was that it's a console audience, and we need to treat them a bit more gently, since they're less experienced," said DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson to GamesIndustry. Gustavsson had been with the company since the first Battlefield title, and admitted to coming to the console project with a colored opinion.

"For a very long time I think the PC audience was seen as the hardcore, the most competitive and dedicated audience," he said. "Maybe at one time that was partially true, but now we definitely see a fanatic shooter audience on console."

"When we shipped [Bad Company].. the audience had grown, matured, played more online," he added.

DICE is taking this lesson into consideration when designing the sequel, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, 360, PS3), which is due for a winter release.

"Now, looking at our console audience, we just had this discussion that we should more or less handle them on equal terms," said Gustavsson. "A lot of PC players like me have become old farts, with children at home, and it's harder to find the time to sit in front of the PC. Therefore, when they find a good shooter title they'll expect more or less the same possibilities when they fight it out in a console game as they would in a Battlefield PC title."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 13, 2009 12:15 PM

    Personally, I'd be very curious to see what the age and socio-economic demographics look like for this "fanatic shooter audience."

    • reply
      May 13, 2009 12:25 PM

      the best part of the article is when he calls them "fanatic shooter audience" followed by "old farts"

      Their core audience is the Fanatic Farts

    • reply
      May 13, 2009 12:47 PM

      apparently if a lot of people play a game, that means they are good at it too...

    • reply
      May 13, 2009 1:07 PM

      "A lot of PC players like me have become old farts, with children at home, and it's harder to find the time to sit in front of the PC".

      Here's the reason why video games tends to get so easy and accessible these days. Developpers are getting old and lazy and casual! If you look at the team behind the Witcher, all you see is young people.

      Let's ban the old farts!

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