Medal of Honor scores bad, end of the franchise?
Much like Activision does with Call of Duty, Electronic Arts has been setting up something of a tradition of having a new Battlefield one year, and a new Medal of Honor the other. If we look at how the latest Medal of Honor is doing at the moment, EA may have to find something else in two years…
Reviewers have been all but positive when it comes to Danger Close’s Warfighter. The current Metacritic score for the game on PC and PS3 average out at 56% while on X360 it does even worse with 51%. An overview:
- Playstation Official Magazine UK: 60
- Giantbomb: 60
- Gamespot: 60
- Official Xbox Magazine UK: 50
- Official Xbox Magazine: 50
- Destructoid: 50
- Game Informer: 50
- VideoGamer: 50
- Eurogamer: 50
- ActionTrip: 43
- Joystiq: 40
- IGN: 40
- Edge: 30
Overall, most publications seem to agree that Warfighter never manages to surprise and too much relies on the tricks of the trades of modern shooter franchises and giving people what they’ve been given so many times already in the past. In short: fast food for the masses that relies on being easily digestible but lacks all sense of quality. We’ll give you some short comments from IGN and Joystiq:
Gorgeous visuals and high production values can only carry a poor experience so far. Expect to spend a lot of time waiting, watching, and wondering why you’re bothering to play at all during Medal of Honor Warfighter’s disappointing, confusing campaign
And Joystiq’s take:
The concept behind Warfighter is sound – particularly its attempt to personalize the internal conflict of a soldier – but the execution leaves a lot to be desired
Meanwhile, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has spoken out and said that this may very well mean the end for the Medal of Honor franchise:
“The last iteration of Medal of Honor received an average Metacritic score of 75 in 2010 (after its predecessor received an average score of 73 in 2007), and EA management committed to improving quality with this year’s release,”
“Instead, with an average score of only 50, the game is likely to fall short of revenue expectations by $100 million or more. Perhaps more importantly, the poor performance of Medal of Honor makes it highly unlikely that EA can deliver significant digital revenues from DLC subscriptions next year, and sets the company up for a disappointing comparison to the $204 million in digital revenues it expects from Battlefield this year.”
“It may be too late for the Medal of Honor brand, as a score as low as this one received may be fatal.”
UK Sales Charts: EA keeps the lead
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