FRANCHISE FOCUS: MEDAL OF HONOR 24 MCV 17/09/10
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Honor’s development and tone: “When we first started this game, there were a lot of good ideas about what to do, where to set it and how to tell the story,” Goodrich says. “We decided on a direction, and then we met the Tier 1 Operators through a long series of interviews and meetings. “It took about six to eight months for them to get comfortable with us and understand our intent to honour them, their community and what they do. “Once they were on board, they were fully behind us. Whatever these guys do, they want to do the best, and they wanted to approach Medal of Honor in the same way.”
THE NEW RECRUITS The Medal of Honor franchise also stands to get a much-needed shot in the arm now that it is in the hands of an entirely new studio.
Officially opened early this year, the new division of EALA known as Danger Close has inspired its members to prove their worth with their debut product. “EALA has been around for a long time,” Goodrich explains. “With Danger Close, we wanted to have an identity as a group of individuals that have battled together, weathered the storm and are now refreshed and ready to kick some ass. “It’s all well and good to call yourself EALA and be part of Electronic Arts – it’s a wonderful brand. But to have your
own identity, your own logo – even our own T-shirts – is even better. “The team that we’ve built in Los Angeles is comprised of people who have worked on every Medal of Honor ever, but we’ve also got a lot of fresh blood too. We’ve got a new name, a new identity – it’s a great place to be.” The rebooted Medal of Honor has already won over plenty of consumers and lapsed fans through Danger Close’s collaboration with DICE. With the highly acclaimed Battlefield studio in charge of the multiplayer, all involved are convinced that MOH will shape up to be something pretty special. “It’s been great to have two fully staffed teams working on a single product –
each team can concentrate on what they do best,” says Goodrich. “DICE is a world-class multiplayer developer so for them to not have to worry about a single-player campaign is a luxury. “Obviously, this is not the most economic way of doing things but from EA’s point of view, it shows our commitment to do this right. We can each concentrate on our half. We’ve been using the analogy of chocolate and
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peanut butter – two great tastes that go great together and all in one box – and hopefully it’s one that gamers will appreciate.”
STRATEGIC STRIKE With so much anticipation behind the new-look Medal of Honor, Goodrich is keen to point out that EA has taken its time with production. It may have been three years since the last MOH, but it doesn’t mean the newest iteration has been rushed to market. He says: “It’s a very difficult thing to manage everyone’s expectations, especially with a franchise like Medal of Honor because everybody wants it to do extremely well, but you have to temper
We have a great team with some great talent so if EA lets us make another MOH, we’ll continue to grow. Greg Goodrich, Danger Close
that with the shooter space being a crowded genre.”
The shift from past conflicts with modern day has drawn inevitable comparison with Call of Duty, but Electronic Arts keeps biting its tongue. The firm won’t declare Medal of Honor to be a COD-beater, but it certainly sounds like that’s the plan. Instead, the publisher remains remarkably humble about Medal of
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Honor’s re-entry into the market, emphasising that the series and its new studio is simply gathering its strength before gunning for the top spot. “Our competitor is very good at what it does because they’ve been doing it together for a long time,” he says. “When you have a developer producing games that iterate on the same technology with the same team, it’s like a professional basketball team: they can do no-look passes, they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. But it takes time to build that. We’ve got a great team with some great talent so if EA allows us to do another we’ll continue to build and grow and hopefully the games will get better and better.” While other studios would already be ordering champagne and brainstorming ideas for the inevitable sequel, Danger Close is still completely focused on making a good first impression. But the buzz surrounding the return of Medal of Honor already points to a more than promising launch when the game hits shelves next month.
Goodrich adds: “My father used to say you should concentrate on the work not the reward. If you focus on the work, the rest will follow, but focus on the reward and you’ll forget to do the work. “We are definitely concentrating on the work.”
And if all goes to plan, EA could win back its Medal of Honor quicker than it will admit it wants to.
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