Electronic Arts has announced that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be storming the shores of North America on March 2nd, 2010. Read more…
Infinity Ward is leaving the possibility of more DLC up to the community this time for their take on the Call of Duty franchise. Robert Bowling, Community Manager at Infinity Ward, sent an email to MTV Multiplayer yesterday afternoon with these remarks:
“As far as DLC goes, we love it and plan to support ‘Modern Warfare 2′ heavily with post-launch support. We’ve confirmed we’ll be doing AT LEAST two map packs which were announced at E3 as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360. The fact that we confirmed at least two map packs doesn’t mean there won’t be more; honestly we plan on shaping our DLC based on community feedback from the full game, and first two DLC map packs. Therefore, the community will really determine what comes after that.”
With the fact that there will be at least two map packs confirmed, and the decision for more based on community feedback; it’s pretty hard to say that there wouldn’t be any more DLC coming after the release of the first two; considering the monumental success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
So with the ball in our court, is it safe to assume that maybe we can expect more than just map packs to be released as DLC? how about an additional multiplayer mode? I suppose anything could happen, but it’s just a thought.
Wait, you’re telling me that this isn’t a retail release? This is an Xbox Live Arcade title? Yeah, I was surprised myself when I first saw the more than up to par graphic style of this World War II first-person shooter. So how can this be, you ask?
Well, Battlefield: 1943 is a very streamlined version of a multiplayer shooter; being that you only get four maps to play in; Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo-Jima, and Coral Sea to be exact. The fourth map, Coral Sea, wasn’t originally included with the initial release, but was later added as an unlockable map once the community reached 43 million kills. 43 million, 1943, yada-yada, you get it right? Ok good. Now that we realize how clever that is, we’ll move on. Read more…
According to a recent job posting by 2K Boston on GamaSutra, it seems apparent that they are in the market for a Lead Multiplayer Designer in the FPS department.
Lead Multiplayer Designer (First-Person Shooter)
2K Boston, the team that brought you BioShock, is looking for a talented, experienced game designer to lead a multiplayer design team on our next big project.
You will be responsible for creating, documenting and communicating multiplayer design concepts and mechanics. Additionally, you will be required to work with our design tools to implement game mechanics or parameters and test and tune those. You will probably be required to do a certain amount of level building or design as well, though this is not the major focus of the role.
BioShock had no multi-player mode. We don’t believe in throwing in something that can’t go head to head with the big boys. No applicants will be considered who aren’t able to demonstrate they’ve got the skills to build an industry-changing multiplayer design.
Responsibilities:
- You must be familiar with the current state of the art in multiplayer game design across a wide range of genres on both PC and console. You must be capable of analyzing and critiquing game designs and using that analysis to inform your own design sensibilities. We expect you to be familiar with BioShock and other 2K Boston/Irrational products and be able to speak critically about them.
- Finally, there are a wide variety of miscellaneous other tasks associated with this position such as speaking at conferences, working on game documentation and manuals and occasional PR duties.
Required Experience and Skills:
- This position requires a high degree of creativity. You will be required to work with the single player team to form a “vision” of the multiplayer experience and use that vision to inform your design decisions. From there, you will help build a multiplayer design team and be responsible to guide your team through the entire production cycle.
- An important part of the role is then communicating that vision clearly and concisely to the rest of the team and ensuring that they have a clear and specific mandate for their work. You must also provide a receptive ear so that other team members can provide input on the game design and feel that it is paid attention to.
- Prior experience designing first person shooter games is an absolute must. Understanding of online persistence is preferred but not required. MMO design or production experience also preferred.
- Above all we are looking for somebody with enthusiasm, passion and the desire to create a multiplayer experience that is on par with the industry-leading single player experiences created at 2K Boston.
So does this mean BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams will be getting multiplayer? There have definitely Read more…
