The reason why DICE and EA are cowards

DICE made an extremely popular game called Battlefield 2. It had revolutionary ideas (persistence, unlocks, commander, vehicles) for FPS games at it's time of release, that no other game captured as well. There were some spinoffs (the Bad Company series) that had some of the same aspects, and were fun games in their own right, but were never a true sequel to the original. A real sequel builds upon that which came before it, ironing out the rough edges, and adding new and exciting things, while keeping true to the core values that built its fanbase.