Now that the recent EA-Respawn and Activision-Bungie partnerships have set up a de facto rivalry in the public eye, EA seems more than willing to ride the hype for all it's worth. EA Partners head David DeMartini already used the term "B-team" to refer to the "Call of Duty: Black Ops" developers at Treyarch. Now, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau has called "Crysis 2" an outright "Halo-killer."
"I can’t really go into any commentary on what we talked about when and how, but you know I think when we looked at our portfolio, and we looked at the L.A. team and how we were going to be investing long-term in the Medal of Honor franchise with them and how DICE was building 'Battlefield,' and then like I said before, we were trying to craft a Halo-killer, you know a product that would squarely go after what Bungie built with our partners at Crytek," Gibeau told Industry Gamers. "So the 'Crysis 2' product is spectacular, very high-end, and is going to be a multi-year franchise, so at some point in the portfolio plan you’ve got, when you look at Crytek, DICE, Epic, the L.A. team building MoH, and then Respawn, you know we got a pretty damn killer team."
You have to give it to EA. They know who their competition is, particularly with "Halo: Reach" landing later this year. They also know how to slip some fighting phrases into their press comments. They can scribble killing Halo down on their list of lofty goals that already includes taking back the console FPS crown from Call of Duty. That's a two-fronted war I don't know that I'd want to undertake myself, but it does make for fiery quotes.
Do you think think "Crysis 2" will be more impressive than "Halo: Reach"? Do you think EA will be able to outdo the Halo or Call of Duty franchises in the near future? Share your predictions in the comment section below.