EA Says Annual Releases Ruined Medal of Honor

EA Says Annual Releases Ruined Medal of Honor

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EA President Frank Gibeau recently stated his opinion on why the Medal of Honor games had such a huge downfall. Below is an excerpt from a pretty good 1up article.

"I think any franchise that's been around for a long time, they get in a rut, they become over-annualized. They run out of innovation," explained the EA exec. "The team pounds on a game every year, and they get tired, they run out of time and effort to be innovative and try and take some new risks. That was my view on how the franchise has fallen."

Gibeau doesn't pin the blame solely on yearly sequels, however. "I also felt like the online component wasn't getting enough attention," Gibeau confessed. "Any shooter worth its salt is going to be really breakthrough in its online play, and I think Battlefield: Bad Company is a good example of that, I think Modern Warfare 2 is a good example of that, I think Halo clearly is a good example of that. The power of a franchise in the shooter category is in the online component and modes."

My initial thoughts fall back to Call of Duty and thinking of the very recent combusted situation between Activision and Infinity Ward. It seems that one reason among many that IW was upset is that they were being pushed to pump out a Modern Warfare 3 title too quickly. So one can look back and see why Medal of Honor is no longer as popular.

One thing that does surprise me is that EA hasn't tapped the IW guys to take on Medal of Honor.