Battlefield 4 shipped with "dirt all over it," says Oddworld creator

Electronic Arts' multiplayer shooter Battlefield 4 shipped with "dirt all over it," according to Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning, referencing the bugs that marred the game's launch last year. Lanning's comments came as part of an interview with VG247 wherein he blasted the AAA market overall.

"F**k that business. I don't want to play with that business, because it was a losing business," Lanning said. He claimed that AAA game publishers can become beholden to shareholders and as a result, run the risk of building games by the book instead of branching out and trying new things.

"I'd rather not make games than go f**king be a slave for public companies who care more about their shareholders than they do about their customers," he added.

Lanning pointed to the release of Battlefield 4 as an example of publisher executives putting the desires of its shareholders ahead of gamers.

"Why did Battlefield 4 ship? You know that team was crying. You know that team knew that game wasn't ready to go," Lanning said. "You know that team f**king spent a lot of sleepless nights building that sh** out to look as good and play as good, when it was able to be experienced, being played as they were intending it to be played."

"Someone made a decision that the shareholders are more important than the customer. And we see a lot of that," he added. "How do you blow that? How do you take that f**king jewel and ship it with dirt all over it?"

It's not just Battlefield 4 that "shipped with dirt all over it," but also predecessor Battlefield 3, according to lead designer David Goldfarb. Writing on Twitter, he said, "So did BF3." Goldfarb has since left EA to join Payday developer Overkill Software.

We've reached out to EA/DICE for a response to Lanning's comments.

Defending Battlefield 4's rocky launch, in February EA chief creative officer Richard Hilleman acknowledged that the game had some issues at release, but said that the product overall has been "exceedingly successful" from both a sales and gameplay perspective. He also brushed aside a question about Battlefield 4 not being tested before release, saying more than 10,000 people beta tested the game.