Ben-DutkaDICE doesn't mind butting heads with mega-blockbuster Call of Duty and in fact, they're looking forward to the challenge.
But they have some interesting things to say about other genres. After confirming to Edge that Battlefield 3 will be "a more focused, scripted experience," DICE executive producer Patrick Bach claimed that most sandbox games are really only for the hardcore and "tough to get into."
"I don’t see it as an absolute goal for all games to be sandbox games. We’ve been building sandbox games for quite some time and we’ve got pretty good at it, but I don’t see that as the only way of building games, because then we wouldn’t build campaigns at all.
In some cases they aren’t, but in most cases sandbox games are hardcore, boring, hard to get into and they are not very popular."
Battlefield 3 will undoubtedly clash with this year's Call of Duty – most assume it'll be Modern Warfare 3 – but let's not forget that Grand Theft Auto lurks in the distance. In fact, the analysts have weighed in by saying GTAV can benefit from the current shooter fascination , and Michael Pachter is predicting "massive" sales . That's sandbox, isn't it? And what about inFamous 2 ?
Well, to each his own. But before CoD ruled the universe, many accused GTA of being too "casual" and "mainstream," so sandbox games aren't necessarily "tough to get into." …are they?
Related Game(s): Battlefield 3