Those who were worried that the Battlefield series would hop on the ol' Yearly Release Express with the other big franchises of today can put those fears to rest. DICE's Patrick Bach told GamerZines that an annual release of Battlefield is not part of the company's current "business goals," and that doing an annual release would "eventually kill the franchise." Well said, Bach, well said.
"To us, we need the time to be able to create the next game that consumers will hopefully like," says Bach. "If we were to release another big Battlefield title next year, that would mean that we'd have less than a year to build it, and that would mean that we'd have to have another studio building it for us, which would mean it wouldn't have that DICE seal of approval, which would mean they'd just have to release a copy of the game we just released. Ugh, no."
Bach went on to reassure that EA would never force DICE to release a game every year, and that he feels that expansions similar to Bad Company 2's "Vietnam"--which introduced new weapons and vehicles along with new maps--are what makes a game "feel new and fresh again."
"It's not a new game but a twist on your old game, and I think that's a healthier way of looking at a franchise rather than just trying to cram every single last penny out of it."
