Nothing is more delightful than two major publishers going at it.  I’ve started checking headlines over on IGN about once a week to see what nonsense they’re posting, and today I came across this article.  The short of its, EA has decided to take on Activision in the FPS market and challenge the dominance of the COD franchise.  Now,  I would argue against Activision’s dominance in the first place simply because the lack of data for digital distribution outlets like Steam are simply not available (how many units did L4D2 sell?  Or HL2 for that matter?).  Activision moves alot of units, but their games are of middling quality.  I’d take Team Frotress 2, which I’m lukewarm about (personal preference; it’s an exceptional game, I just don’t enjoy it that much), over a COD title any day, and I think Battlefield 2142 petered out long before it should have.  But numbers are what matters to the Koticks of the world, so now EA is going to push for market share. 

Having played the PS3 beta of Bad Company 2 at a friend’s house, I’m very hopeful that they have the means to do this.  For a Beta, the game was very polished and seemed quite balanced.  I can’t stand analog sticks for control, but I can see that being the game to beat on PC, with the better control scheme and pumped up visuals.  If the final product is as good as I hope it will be, EA will prove they can still push for a quality product.  I’m somewhat less hopeful for Medal of Honor since Airborne was worse than COD4 (it’s near-contemporary) and I was underwhelmed by the so-called “open” game design.  But if they really want to snag market share from Activision, they’ll do it right.  And if they accomplish that, the gamers will benefit.

These sorts of wars can mean huge dividends for us as gamers in terms of game quality, but ONLY if we demand quality from the publisher and the developers.  If we’re ok with the same old thing, we’ll just get MW2 over and over.  But if we demand something more each time, even if it’s only incremental, we win.