Battlefield 4 Creative Director: We Underestimated Console Gamers

Battlefield has, largely, always ben a PC series first and foremost. Though it did have some successful console ventures with the Bad Company spin off series, and then again with Battlefield 3, which was available on consoles as well as PC, the lead platform is always PC, and that is where the action has resided. The console versions have always been ‘dumbed down’ in comparison.

Not so with Battlefield 4, DICE assures us.

Talking to MMGN at Gamescom, Battlefield 4 creative director Lars Gustavsson said the renowned game maker would be focusing a lot more on the console versions this time around, since they were now aware that the console audience was more hardcore than they had ever thought.

“When we did Modern Combat on PS2 and Xbox, it was our first console experience,” he said. “Then we did Bad Company 1. In some areas we were dumbing it down too much, and we underestimated console gamers.”

“We’ve come to realise that it’s [the console market] definitely that ‘hardcore’ audience that’s in line with the PC crowd,” he explained. ”Obviously it changes how the game is designed and played, but working on PC has allowed us to evolve and change Frostbite.

“It was always a matter of bringing that over to consoles, rather than changing it to better fit consoles.”

Of course, the extra power that the PS4 and the Xbox One afford DICE over the severely challenged Xbox 360 and PS3, must also have something to do with the console version not being gimped this time around.