Battlefield 1 was recently revealed to be headed back in time to World War 1 – but publisher EA originally rejected the setting for the game altogether from developer DICE.
“When the team presented the idea to me of World War I, I absolutely rejected it. I said World War I, it’s trench warfare; it can’t be fun to play,” Patrick Söderlund, the executive vice president of EA Studios, said during EA’s annual Investor Day briefing.
A short while later, Söderlund warmed up to the idea after looking at the competition for first-person shooters.
“If you look at what other partners in the industry are doing, they’re going into sci-fi; we’ve had a lot of success in the modern military space,” Söderlund said. “But we felt like there was a need for a change.”
“We have to remember that so far, we have only shown one trailer,” Söderlund concluded. “Yes, it’s gotten a lot of success, but what’s important is that we have to go back and make sure we deliver on the full promise of what Battlefield can be. And that we will do.”
Battlefield 1 is set to release on October 21st for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Will you be playing?