The dismal reception for Medal of Honor: Warfighter and its predecessor forced publisher Electronic Arts to put the franchise on hold. The company places the blames squarely on its shoulders, saying that leadership was at issue, not a glut of World War II games.
The Medal of Honor series is apparently being put on hold. Although the 2010 reboot of EA's FPS series was successful for the company, its follow-up was not. 2012's Warfighter met lackluster reviews, and equally dismal sales. According to EA, the title performed "well below our expectations."
In the wake of the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut, violent video games have come under increased scrutiny. Electronic Arts, which entered a promotional arrangement with some weapons manufacturers to promote Medal of Honor: Warfighter, has since removed links to the companies from its site.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter wasn't exactly a breakout success. Despite bugs, poor reviews, and a high-profile scolding from military brass for Navy SEALs involvement, EA has committed to continued support of the military shooter. The map pack based on the film Zero Dark Thirty is still coming next month, and a new developer diary shows off its environments.
Watch: Detailed looks at Chitral Compound, Darra Gun Market »
It's not a sign of confidence when a publisher refuses to send review copies of their game until the day of its release. That's what EA did with Medal of Honor Warfighter, a game torn apart by critics.
EA admits that the game will not meet financial expectations, and as such, has lowered expectations for the game. EA's Frank Gibeau said that while the company "takes quality very seriously," he believes the reviews are not in line with the company's internal testing, adding "while we're disappointed in the critical response, we believe this is a good game."
There are plenty of games that get patched on release day, but most involve minor fixes and tweaks. Not so with Medal of Honor Warfighter, which hit shelves today. Electronic Arts released a must-install-immediately patch for the game that rivals the fixes in some major content updates.
Medal of Honor Warfighter launches in a mere five days, and as with any upcoming game release, the marketing team gets into high gear. Electronic Arts has cranked out a new trailer for the game, this one focusing on multiplayer.
EA's initial reboot of the Medal of Honor series failed to win hearts and minds and chip away at Call of Duty's domination of the modern-day face-shooting market, but it's not deterred so easily. Come Friday, we'll get to have a good hard look at its second attempt, when the Medal of Honor Warfighter multiplayer open beta launches exclusively on Xbox 360.
Just in case you're still on the fence about Medal of Honor: Warfighter, you can try the multiplayer yourself with an open beta coming to Xbox 360 in early October. You'll be able to choose from 12 different factions of Tier 1 units, like the British SAS, German KSK, Russian Spetsnaz Alfa, Korean UDT, and US Navy SEALs.
No Easy Day is a best-selling book that recounts the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. It's come under a great deal of controversy as its author, Matt Bissonnette (under pen name Mark Owen), did not seek Department of Defense approval before releasing the book. The DoD claims that the book reveals potentially classified information. The Pentagon has threatened legal action.
Apparently, Bissonnette has also consulted on Medal of Honor: Warfighter, the next military shooter from Electronic Arts. And as with No Easy Day, he did not receive authorization to do so.
I'm probably one of the few that enjoyed Danger Close's reboot of the Medal of Honor series. Albeit uninspired and short, I enjoyed the middle-of-the-road approach taken by the studio to create a game that's not-quite-sim and not-quite-arcade shooter. It felt like a more refined take on modern warfare than what Call of Duty had to offer. Given how saturated the market is, EA certainly tried its best to differentiate its offering.
Two years later, EA is giving the Medal of Honor series another whirl. This time, there's a brand new engine and a more bombastic, action-packed narrative. But is it any better? That's questionable.
EA and Sony are crossing charitable efforts with virtual warfare, with a map pack set to give at least $1 million to its Project Honor charity. The charity pack will be available on December 17, to tie into the film Zero Dark Thirty from Sony Pictures, focusing on the multi-year manhunt for Osama bin Laden. For a series that prides itself in verisimilitude and real life locations, the partnership makes sense.
Electronic Arts and developer Danger Close had promised that Medal of Honor Warfighter would take a closer look at the personal aspects of war. We get a glimpse of that with a new video showing one of the main characters, a Navy SEAL named Preacher.
The footage is from the single-player campaign and follows Preacher and his team as they attempt to take out a group responsible for killing civilians in a bombing. Preacher was a central figure in 2010's Medal of Honor, which showed the exploits of his group AFO Team Neptune. The family flashbacks in the video show his wife Lena, supposedly reminding Preacher of what he and his team are fighting for back home.
The poor quality of the last Medal of Honor game is fueling apathy in the upcoming Medal of Honor Warfighter, an analyst said in a report released in anticipation of a Q1 earning update from publisher Electronic Arts later today.
Following yesterday's announcement of a Battlefield 4 beta code being included with the Medal of Honor Warfighter LE, fans had lingering questions. DICE has taken to answering a few of them, including the fate of Battlefield 3 and requested features they're trying to slip into B4.
"There's Red Orchestra 2, though I only see EA mentioning ww2 in the article."
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