EA had to move fast to remove a post stating that players who pre-order Medal of Honor: Warfighter would get access to the Battlefield 4 beta, but the publisher was not fast enough.
The video game industry is unique in many ways, one of which is how news breaks. Sometimes the news comes from official sources with formal announcements but those are rare as more often than not news breaks through retail listings, resumes and leaked information.
This time around one of the biggest publishers in the industry, Electronic Arts, pretty much threw away their element of surprise when they inadvertently confirmed Battlefield 4.
A listing on Origin, EA’s very own digital distribution platform, advertised access to the Battlefield 4 beta if they pre-ordered their copy of Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The offer was for Origin users only and was swiftly taken down by EA but not before the cat was out of the bag.
There were rumours of whether EA would release the next instalment in the core Battlefield series or another title in the Bad Company off-shoot but according to the recently removed listing it seems EA is working with DICE on a follow up to their fastest-selling title of all time.
Battlefield 3 broke the publisher’s record for fastest-selling game when it sold a record number of units during its first week of release. Out of the total sales 3-million units worth of sales came from pre-orders alone.
Battlefield 3 was praised by critics and fans alike and many believe the series gained some ground on Activision’s dominant Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games.
This is not the first time that publishers have released information relating to their upcoming games before they should have and it certainly will not be the last.
EA is currently busy working on the follow up to the Medal of Honor reboot. The series made its transition from the traditional World War 2 setting and into the modern military combat zone, when Danger Close and DICE collaborated on Medal of Honor.
The game focused around specific Tier 1 Operatives and U.S. Army Rangers during the American invasion of Afghanistan and received generally positive reviews.
The latest game, Warfighter, is looking to build on the foundation of the first game and will look to expand on the Tier 1 Operative theme as it brings in the Special Forces from around the world as the developers look to bring in a sense of national pride into the game.
In fact, players can choose which nationality’s Tier 1 Operatives they wish to play as with over eight different Special Forces from different countries available to choose from.
It seems that EA will be focusing on the annual release model for their modern military first-person shooter titles with Medal of Honor and Battlefield alternating releases every other year.