Battlefield 4: Don’t alienate fans by “adding crazy features, crazy changes,” says DICE

Battlefield 4 lands on PC and current-gen consoles week after next, and what better time than now for VG247′s Sam Clay to have a chat with executive producer Patrick Bach regarding the game’s development.

[pedrof93]

More Graphics
More Physics
More vehicles
More weapons
More bugs...errrr

:D

Can't wait to play this on PS4, day one !

[papashango]

yet they sell season passes which is probably the single most contributing factor when it comes to alienating fans.

[M-M]

"Don’t alienate fans by adding crazy features, crazy changes". That's the problem this generation, developers are too scared to stray too far away from their original game formula because it could hurt sales. You have to to realize that there are ways to change a game without ruining it.

[Feralkitsune]

It's not being scared, it's being smart. Make a ton of changes and you end up with DMC. If people buy Battlefield, it means they obviously like what the game is; no reason to change that to something totally different and ruin the game for the people who already enjoy it.

Actually, that's what ruined Spinter Cell: Conviction. They tried to "innovate" and ruined the core experience.

[STK026]

I'd say it's smart for developers to not change the basic formula of their successful games just for the sake of change. There's a reason Call of Duty and Battlefield sell so much, and believe it or not, it's not 100% marketing. People, plenty of them, actually enjoy these games the way they are; if these games were to dramatically change, they would risk losing their fans; and unlike what some seem to believe, if you take away CoD from the CoD crowd, it doesn't mean they will go and buy something else like Beyond Two Souls or ICO, there's a huge chance they will simply stop gaming for a while.

If you strike gold, it's only natural for a developer to stick with it. Of course, change can be a good thing, but this generation, many franchises have changed, and for the most part, it wasn't for the best.

If we're going to play the blame game for the lack of innovation in the game industry today, I blame the copycats. Infinity Wards and Treyarch have one of the most successful game franchise of all time, so of course they won't make drastic changes to the series until it's completely necessary. However, other studios who have, over the last generation, tried to emulate Call of Duty are responsible for the stalling of the game industry. Rather than coming up with their own ideas, they simply tried to cash in on the success of another studio's success.

[DonkeyWalrus]

You're right just look at Halo. All the changes 343 made by adding features similar to Call of Duty have done nothing but drive fans away. Right now there are more people playing Halo 3 than Halo 4 since it became free a few days ago.

[WhyHate]

I can't wait to try the new features that they have added. With head tracking and a motion controlled cover system it could be really cool and all signs say it should be, and If not then turn it off in the options.

[tricky_one92]

Finally a game dev other than activision understands....

[fsfsxii]

ofcourse they understand, thats why they implent DLCs.

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

In other words...

Battlefield 3.5

[clmstr]

Old joke. And not true, by the way.

[famoussasjohn]

Considering there was a beta, you'd notice that it's definitely not 3.5. Way to waste your one bubble on being ignorant.

[shimme01]

Its a whole new single player from the ground up, and the improvements to multiplayer (many water changes, levolution, third faction, commander, spectator, new modes, etc) warrant the full version 4 100%.

[HaMM4R]

They already alienated hardcore battlefield players with battlefield of duty 4. The are slowly making the game less like BF, and that is what is alienating fans.

[plmkoh]

Yep, the Beta was enough of an indicator for me to stay well away. Unlimited sprint + insane speeds + very little out of sprint recovery means you'll be jumping, spraying and sliding all over the place.

To think they actually achieved in making the main Battlefield game more arcadey than the arcadey Bad Company, is simply mind boggling.

[Hufandpuf]

I just see it as improving aspects of the game that were lacking. Playing Battlefield on next gen consoles closer tithe PC than ever. Going back and playing Bad Company, I'm glad they improved the infantry gamepla.

[plmkoh]

'Improving' doesn't have to mean appeasing the one-man-army syndrome that CoD has introduced this generation. Infantry combat would have been sweet in this game since they've added lots of communication/tools/squad advatanges, however as I've mentioned above, changing some basic elements breaks the game. BF3 wasn't perfect but it was still decent in that regard, I really can't understand why they felt they needed to change the basic movement system for BF4 other than to appease fast deathmatch-holics.

[xxxsiegezzz]

Unlimited sprint already were in BF3 and that is a great thing, because sometimes you have to run so long distances that without it I would just commid a suicide. Also real soldiers can run several kilometers in full equipment.
Why do you kind of a gamers wander on battlefield news even arma 3 is released?

[plmkoh]

@xxxsiegezzz

You've gravely misunderstood, if you thought I didn't know BF3 had unlimited sprint. Reread by comment, I said 'Unlimited sprint' combined with 'insane speed' and no 'recovery' for switching sprint to aim mode. These traits are typical fast deathmatch features.

And you more or less answered my own distastes for the changes: "Also real soldiers can run several kilometers in full equipment. ". Exactly soldiers 'run' they don't sprint, so why do we need Battlefield infantry sprinting around as if they are the Flash...or is this just CoD?

[BobBelcher]

I better see a damned "Dinosaur Mode."

[shimme01]

crossing fingers. my guess is it comes after premium content for an additional premium :)

[dcj0524]

Good. Too many series are ruined by changing too much but at the sametime don't be a Call of Duty.

[LAWSON72]

Makes me think of Halo 4

[Codey47]

I think it's the lack of innovation that's scaring me away....I've been gaming for over 30 years...... and I get bored easily.

I'm just not one of those guys that can play the same game for two years...even with added maps and weapons.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

Does the changes mean adopting Call Of Duty's control scheme?

[Max-Zorin]

They need to get rid of Admin servers. getting kicked out for being better than someone is not cool.