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[Nirolak]

So since Wedbush implied that there's a Battlefield game coming next year, I thought I'd write up why I feel this makes the most sense.

Evidence:

Exhibit #0.) Criterion is 17 people and thus too small to make a Battlefield game: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-09-16-criterion-games-down-to-17-people

Criterion Games, the British developer of the Burnout series, now has a team of 17 people after the majority of the studio split to form a UK arm of EA's Ghost studio.

Exhibit #1.) EA management has implied to Wedbush that a non-DICE developed Battlefield game is launching next year: http://www.videogamer.com/xboxone/b...riterion_developing_battlefield_spin-off.html

The report later states that Wedbush "spoke with [EA] management on Thursday afternoon, and although they have not yet announced a version of Battlefield for FY:15 [this goes from April 2014 to March 2015], they confirmed that our understanding is spot on and that if a version of Battlefield were to be released in FY:15, it would be developed by a studio other than DICE."

And an outsourcing house agreed:

Exhibit #2.) Visceral was making a Battlefield spin-off game:

Exhibit #3.) Visceral has been hiring FPS game testers:

QA Project Lead – Visceral Redwood Shores

Ideal Competencies
Online gaming background, including MOBA, FPS, and Free to Play

Source: https://jobs.ea.com/search/view.do?id=a0z500000012qKGAAY

Exhibit #4.) Visceral built Battlefield 3: End Game: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-walker/23/b8a/98

Technical Animator
Electronic Arts
Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; ERTS; Entertainment industry
March 2012 – Present (1 year 10 months) Redwood Shores California

Working as a technical animator for EA Visceral. Finished Battlefield 3: DLC pack 5 End Game and currently working on an unannounced project.

Exhibit #5.) Visceral hired Guerrilla's head to direct their new project and Halo 4's project lead to be a design director: http://www.controlmagazine.net/2012/02/23/co-founder-leaves-guerrilla-games-for-ea-visceral/ and https://twitter.com/scottfeed/status/377093419429945344

After a decade of Killzone, Guerrilla Games’ co-founder and Technical Director Arjan Brussee is moving to EA Visceral, creators of another shooter starring glowing eyes, Dead Space.

Design Director, Visceral Games. Before: Project Lead Designer, Halo 4. Long time ago: Mercs series, FSW, Icewind Dale, Planescape.

Exhibit #6.) Visceral is making a next-gen shooter (admittedly doesn't say first or third person):

Exhibit #7.) Visceral has been out firing real world guns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpchI_fy3h8

Exhibit #8.) Visceral is working on an "exciting IP" in some of their job postings instead of a "New IP" or "Star Wars" like other postings explicitly list:

Visceral Games creates top quality next-gen games that push the boundaries of action entertainment. We have over a decade of experience at delivering high-intensity action gaming experiences such as Dead Space and Dead Space 2. As part of a worldwide group of EA studios, we have the stability and backing of a large company combined with the agility and fun culture of small studios and the opportunity to make original IP. We are focused on creativity, polish, and shipping top quality games that millions love as well as building healthy teams and culture. Come join a AAA-quality studio focused on making AAA-quality games!

MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER

Overview

Seeking a highly skilled Multiplayer Designer. This is a major opportunity to contribute creatively to an exciting franchise.
[Nirolak's Note: Their job postings for their new IP explicitly lists new IP, like this one.]

Source: https://career4.successfactors.com/...lertName=&_s.crb=3rNdtNxxlp7q7/4cgO2hx6wTVbo=

Exhibit #9.) Almost everyone from Visceral worked on Battlefield 4: https://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/credits/

VISCERAL
LEAD TEAM
GM Steve Papoutsis
COO Dom Regan
DIRECTOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Russ Brown
Paul Mathus
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ian Milham
PRODUCERS John Calhoun
Mike Glosecki
Yara Khoury
Rick White
LEAD DESIGNER Ben Walker
ART DIRECTOR Rob Clarke
SENIOR DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS Omer Baristiran
Mike Johnston
Patricia Kallusch
Tina Wellner
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS Christoph Betschart
Eugene Lim
Sean Llewellyn
Jatin Patel
Shawn Price
Katharine Teel

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Clarence Co
TECHNICAL ART DIRECTORS TJ Holleran
Doug Brooks
Matt Christmann
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
John Abad Luke Carpenter
Simon Everett Bill Fowler
Michael Glueck Jason Jurecka
Justin Holst Theron Miles
Diego Merayo Merayo Steve Timson


ARTISTS
Joshua Balcaceres Melissa Buffaloe
Matthew Burdette Inna Cherneykina
Rachel Cross Tri Minh Do
Shawn Foreman Jericho Green
Gustav Hagerling Seth Hall
Nils Holden Jens Holdener
Marquis Houghton Ryan Jones
Joon Hyuck Kim Dave Kirchmer
Pen Livings Ed Molina
Brian Nestor Jonathan O'Dell
Patrick O'Keefe Chris Paul
Justin Porter Aaron Roosevelt
Bonnie Rosenstein Randal Shaffer
Philip Simmons Chris Stoski
Rohan White Michael Yen

TECHNICAL ARTISTS
Viken Majoulian Brad Trosin
Paddy Walker
GAMEPLAY DESIGNERS
Stephen Douglass Richard Eastwood
Stephen Iannetta Seth Marinello
Dan Nanni Blade Olson

UI DESIGNER
Dino Ignacio
ANIMATION
LEAD ANIMATORS Tony Gialdini
Collin Hennen
TECHNICAL ANIMATION DIRECTOR Omar Skarsvåg
ANIMATORS Jennifer Cha
Ryan Hicks
Jax Lee
Thai Nguyen
Salvador Ruiz
Neal Thibodeaux
Shane Ushijima
Erick Ward

AUDIO
AUDIO DIRECTORS Andrew Boyd
Paul Gorman
SOUND DESIGNERS David Lowmiller
Bill Rudolph
Sean Vora
J White
VOICE OVER DESIGNERS Will Beckman
Mike Wilga

QA
Brian Battistini Aaron Broster
Daniel Carrodus Stephen Escobedo
Jason Graham Dustin Jaeger
Kaylene Jetmore Tim Olson
Craig Simon Chase Swanson
Nicholas Williams Kevin Zittle

In comparison, only a few people from BioWare were there, so they aren't just listing whole studios:

BIOWARE
ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL DIRECTORS
Nathan Brierley
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
Alec Antrim Andras Babos
Louis-Philippe Thibodeau Clayton Vaught

TECHNICAL ARTIST
Andy Li
ADDITIONAL VFX ARTISTS
Trevor Gilday Craig Moroney
Jacky Xuan

 

[Liseda]

Wow, I didn't even know Visceral worked on Battlefield 4.
This is quite interesting!
Maybe it will be bad company 3 or something close to it? Or maybe something like Vietnam to BC2 but for BF4?

 

[Maninthemirror]

So DICE about to be put out on the shooting range ?

 

[Nirolak]

Wow, I didn't even know Visceral worked on Battlefield 4.
This is quite interesting!
Maybe it will be bad company 3 or something close to it?

DICE did hint that if someone made Bad Company 3, it probably wouldn't be them:

Despite fan demand, Battlefield: Bad Company 3 isn't something DICE could even realistically be working on. Speaking with IGN about the status of Bad Company 3, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach said, “Right now, I would not say we have the bandwidth to do it at the DICE studio in Stockholm." The Stockholm-based developer currently has Battlefield 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, and a new Mirror's Edge in development, alongside its Frostbite 3 and Frostbite Go engines.

Bach continued, "We can always find talented people around the world," and echoed previous statements by saying “The Bad Company series is by no means killed or anything, it’s still out there.”

Bach also went onto explain how the core mechanics that defined Bad Company's multiplayer made a natural transition into the mainline franchise -- namely the destructible environments and squad commands.

“We merged the Battlefield main game with Bad Company," Bach explained. "And we’ll continue to do it. I won’t say we’ll never build another Bad Company game, but right now we’re focusing on Battlefield 4.”

...

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/14/e3-2013-dice-has-no-bandwidth-for-battlefield-bad-company-3

 

[Portugeezer]

So there's a chance?

 

[Valnen]

I'd prefer more Dead Space. Oh well.

 

[Nirolak]

So DICE about to be put out on the shooting range ?

No, think Treyarch/Infinity Ward.

 

[phazedplasma]

And so it begins, it was only a matter of time before we got one a year.

 

[Bedameister]

Holy shit. I don't know what to say about that. I hope it's not true. Another Battlefield in 2015 could only be horrible

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

After a decade of Killzone, Guerrilla Games’ co-founder and Technical Director Arjan Brussee is moving to EA Visceral, creators of another shooter starring glowing eyes, Dead Space.

Pretty big acqusition, I must say, for Visceral. If you want something to be a graphical, audio and stable experience, go for this guy.

I would rather have Visceral make a BF game than Criterion. Maybe make it a creepy BF game? If not, then just BC3.

 

[JaseC]

A cow says...

 

[shinobi602]

Aren't they working on a Star Wars game?

http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/24/sta...-hiring-senior-producer-for-next-gen-project/

 

[ShinobiFist]

Hopefully, this means BF games will work at launch. And why don't they have two teams for Madden???

 

[Nirolak]

Aren't they working on a Star Wars game?

http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/24/sta...-hiring-senior-producer-for-next-gen-project/

Yes, but they're a big studio.

The Star Wars game also seems to be done in tandem with EA Canada: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=723943

 

[Jawmuncher]

Makes sense to me if EA is trying to do BF yearly.
Hell we might even see dice taken off the series for a time so they can do battlefront.

 

[Nibel]

How did Battlefield 4 actually perform? It seems like I missed some information

 

[Nirolak]

How did Battlefield 4 actually perform? It seems like I missed some information

Well it's down a bit from the last go around, but it's still by and far one of EA's top two series if not their biggest series (FIFA is the other big one).

 

[jet1911]

So Bad Company 3 next year?

 

[Hellsing321]

EA wants that COD money.

 

[shinobi602]

Yes, but they're a big studio.

The Star Wars game also seems to be done in tandem with EA Canada: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=723943

Got to be at least a few hundred devs, I had no idea Visceral was that big.

 

[Nirolak]

Got to be at least a few hundred devs, I had no idea Visceral was that big.

EA has largely taken the approach of bloating up their remaining few studios after they ended up closing a ton.

PopCap even is some astronomical number IIRC.

Basically if an EA studio still exists and they're not a mobile dev or Criterion, chances are they're at least 200-300 people. :lol

 

[Tagg9]

Yes, but they're a big studio.

The Star Wars game also seems to be done in tandem with EA Canada: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=723943

Indeed. I think they have almost 500 employees now.

 

[Nirolak]

Adding to the list, Halo 4's Project Lead is now Visceral's Design Director: http://gamerant.com/halo-4-designer-joins-visceral-games/

 

[JaseC]

Basically if an EA studio still exists and they're not a mobile dev or Criterion, chances are they're at least 200-300 people. :lol

"It's worked well for Ubisoft!"

 

[FullMetaltech]

EA wants that COD money.

Probably so. But a yearly BF game would just kill the whole series.

 

[AlexBasch]

Well fuck I'd have loved Bad Company. ):

 

[jelly]

DICE moving onto Battlefront or Battlefield becoming yearly by another dev or same cycle makes sense, the series is already way ahead of everyone bugs aside. They can milk that for 4 years at least. EA see easy $$$ for minimal effort and DICE can have a break doing something else while still adding to the Frostbite Engine.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Adding to the list, Halo 4's Project Lead is now Visceral's Design Director: http://gamerant.com/halo-4-designer-joins-visceral-games/

So him and the guy from Guerrilla games... damn.

 

[Can Crusher]

Yeesh. Let it breathe.

 

[Empty]

if true, it's slightly amusing that visceral worked on battlefield and the ex-visceral guys at sledgehammer worked on call of duty

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I wouldn't mind as much if it was a $15 download-only title like Battlefield 1943.

But a full $60 BF game every year? Sometimes I hate this industry.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I wouldn't mind as much if it was a $15 download-only title like Battlefield 1943.

But a full $60 BF game every year? Sometimes I hate this industry.

Why do I feel like that if EA did this, at least this go, is because they felt that they fucked up too much on BF4 that they need another game ASAP to make up for it? Dunno...

But still, the talent is there at least .

 

[Dyno]

That's some pretty compelling evidence!

It could be good. Visceral has done great work in the past and have made some killer stories. Also they have made choices that were less than optimal. They could do some great things and have some great ideas for an established franchise.

 

[JaseC]

Why do I feel like that if EA did this, at least this go, is because they felt that they fucked up too much on BF4 that they need another game ASAP to make up for it? Dunno...

But still, the talent is there at least .

Mandating yearly instalments isn't exactly the best way to atone for a game that was clearly rushed to the market.

 

[flkraven]

This is terrible news IMO. With EA pushing back the DLC in order to fix BF4, we will barely have 8-9 months of a working Battlefield game before a new one is released? Will they even release all of the Premium DLC packs by then?

The oversaturation in the shooter market is just getting ridiculous now. EA has Titanfall, Battlefield, and Battlefront as consistent future pieces in their stable, why do they need Battlefield to be annualized? I thought they were setting up to alternate releases between those big three brands. Get ready to get fatigued.

 

[Sojgat]

I thought EA said that they weren't going to make Battlefield an annual franchise.

Are you seriously suggesting that we can't take EA at their word?

 

[ReaperXL7]

I thought there was a rumor that Visceral were also working on a Starwars game? Maybe Im thinking of a different EA developer?

I remember them saying they had multiple starwars games in their plans.

 

[Nirolak]

I thought there was a rumor that Visceral were also working on a Starwars game? Maybe Im thinking of a different EA developer?

I remember them saying they had multiple starwars games in their plans.

Their only officially announced project is Star Wars.

That said they've been hiring for a new IP for ages and my speculation is that said new IP might now be called Battlefield.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Mandating yearly instalments isn't exactly the best way to atone for a game that was clearly rushed to the market.

Nope, but it doesn't mean it won't happen... which sucks. Funny how they wanted to rush it against COD, yet it's probably the most hated COD game ever made...

Also, maybe this could be a rumor that Visceral is making the DLC for the game, while DICE is fixing everything/debugging?

 

[Nirolak]

VideoGamer updated their story: http://www.videogamer.com/xboxone/b...riterion_developing_battlefield_spin-off.html

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Probably so. But a yearly BF game would just kill the whole series.

Indeed; they'll rush it into an early grave, and I don't think BF will have the legs that COD has had.

 

[TronLight]

Criterion Games, the British developer of the Burnout series, now has a team of 17 people after the majority of the studio split to form a UK arm of EA's Ghost studio.

Everytime I read this my blood boils.

And, I don't think that beign and yearly release will do any good to the Battlefield brand.
They should take more time and come up with new ideas.

 

[JaseC]

Nope, but it doesn't mean it won't happen... which sucks. Funny how they wanted to rush it against COD, yet it's probably the most hated COD game ever made...

Also, maybe this could be a rumor that Visceral is making the DLC for the game, while DICE is fixing everything/debugging?

Of course. I was just making the point that offering reparation for a game that was rushed to the market in the form of, uh, rushing more such games to the market isn't overly wise.

 

[ReaperXL7]

Their only officially announced project is Star Wars.

That said they've been hiring for a new IP for ages and my speculation is that said new IP might now be called Battlefield.

Ahh ok. I guess I did not realise that Visceral were large enough to handle multiple projects at a time. I would kill for a true Dead Space 1 sequel on PS4, they did some really awesome stuff with that first game(though I did like 2 allot aswell).

EA fucked it with 3 though

 

[Muppet of a Man]

EA is such a shit house. Just flush the whole damn thing!

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I have to get sad to see that every damn company always making their studios work around a certain IP or get closed down.

EA with Battlefield
Activision with CoD
Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed

And new IP's tend to be very similar to the last ones in certain ways too! A never ending cycle.

Good detective work, Nirolak!

 

[The Smoking Bun]

OMG!!! Barbie in Pink Shoes is finally happening!! Now only HL 3 and Last Guardian remain!

 

[ReaperXL7]

I have to get sad to see that every damn company always making their studios work around a certain IP or get closed down.

EA with Battlefield
Activision with CoD
Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed

And new IP's tend to be very similar to the last ones in certain ways too! A never ending cycle.

Good detective work, Nirolak!

I dont really think Ubisoft applies honestly. I mean yeah they have Ass Creed every year, but they have/are also doing allot of other stuff.

Just off the top of my head they have Child of light, Rayman, Far Cry, The Division, The Crew, and WatchDogs (watch the animus show up). Ubisoft actually might have the most new IP in the works right now.

 

[runnin_blue]

10 bucks EA milks this tit to death.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I dont really think Ubisoft applies honestly. I mean yeah they have Ass Creed every year, but they have/are also doing allot of other stuff.

Just off the top of my head they have Child of light, Rayman, Far Cry, The Division, The Crew, and WatchDogs (watch the animus show up). Ubisoft actually might have the most new IP in the works right now.

Very good point, they do work on several other things.