EA on Battlefield 1 -- "We Took a Risk on This"

Whereas some shooters are looking to the future and sci-fi categories, EA's Battlefield 1 is taking a trip back in time to World War 1. In a new interview with GI.biz, EA global publishing chief Laura Miele said the game represented a risk--but one that "made a lot of sense."

"We took a risk on this. We zigged when the market was zagging in shooters," she said. "It was something that, at the moment that we put out the press release, to get the fan response that we did, was incredibly gratifying and it was pretty thrilling to see how the market received the game in that way."

World War 1 as a setting is actually quite fitting for the Battlefield brand, Miele mentioned.

"When you think about the major pillars of a Battlefield game--big, large, epic scale battles, massive vehicles, super diverse gaming tactics--the WW1 backdrop was actually a perfect place for us to map those pillars to that setting," she said. "[EA CEO Andrew Wilson], I think, was quoted on our earnings call to say that WW1 started with people on horses and ended with people on tanks. The technology evolution of WW1 was fascinating..."

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Miele also talked about competition in the FPS space, saying she has respect for Activision's Call of Duty series, and overall believes that competition is good for everyone.

"I have always just thought that healthy competition in our industry is fun. We're a game industry... I genuinely believe that the more great content that our players have and that the industry has then the healthier the industry is and the better it all is," she explained.

"So I welcome the competitive challenge, but I also have a lot of respect for what our competitors do when new games come to market. I think it's just a fun competition and I think our fans and our players love to play it up. That's kind of the nature of our industry as the entertainment category that we're in."

You can read the full GI.biz interview here.

Battlefield 1 launches on October 21 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You won't have to wait that long to play, however, as a beta will be held later this summer.