EA Giving Medal of Honor a Break, Delays Fuse

It might be a few years before we see another Medal of Honor game from Electronic Arts, and it’ll be a few months more until Insomniac Games delivers Fuse.

Both pieces of news were delivered during the publisher’s quarterly financial call this afternoon.

"The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers," said EA COO Peter Moore. "Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of the rotation and have a plan to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."

We’ll likely see Medal of Honor again, but probably not as a near-future military shooter (I hope) of the last two games. Medal of Honor: Warfighter was hardly the worst shooter ever, but its obvious mediocrity, combined with a botched and heavily scrutinized PR campaign, doomed the game. Good games have enough trouble these days.

EA remains committed to having a high-profile first-person-shooter each year, though, and it's unclear what will take its place in the years ahead. Battlefield 4 has already been teased by DICE and EA, and there's the still mysterious new shooter from Respawn Entertainment waiting in the wings.

Fuse underwent a notable aesthetic shift to the realistic in the past year, which helped explain the lengthy waiting period between the game’s original announcement and when we saw it again. “Extra work,” according to EA, is being put into the game, and that means another slight delay.

Fuse is now scheduled to be released in EA’s first fiscal quarter, which means between April 1 and June 30.

They blew a fuse delaying that one. 

@Atwa said:

They blew a fuse delaying that one.

HEY-OOOOOH.

@Atwa said:

They blew a fuse delaying that one.

I don't see Fuse selling well at all, which is disappointing because i like Insomniac a lot. It just looks so plain.

@Atwa said:

They blew a fuse delaying that one.

Living proof of why having a comments section is worth it.

I honestly stopped caring about Fuse after it was not Overstrike.

"The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers," said EA COO Peter Moore. "Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of the rotation and have a plan to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."

I know he's PR, but man thats delusional.

fuse looked generic as all hell, so its good its getting delayed.

as for medal of honor, good that its taking a break, a FAR future medal of honor could be interesting.

I don't like the fact Moore was complaining about the review scores. People didn't like your game. Too bad.

EA giving MoH a break because it's shit? Didn't this already happen years ago?

It's been a few years since an -AAA- world war shooter hasn't it? Bring it back with some twists. YOU ARE THE NAZIS.

I saw a clip of someone standing around in the latest MoH getting shot by a sniper over and over, regenerating health before death - it would literally go on forever. "Combat authenticity" my ass.

Hopefully they use that delay to Fuse to change that atrocious boxart.

I applaud a company who is willing to allow a series to have a break for awhile. Now if only Activision would learn this lesson.

Hey, maybe they'll have another focus group and merge Fuse into the MoH franchise?

I will still be the last man on earth that thinks that Fuse will be fine.

@zipperface said:

About as solid as a flaccid dick; and combat authenticity? I've seen more combat authenticity in lesbian scissoring

That was one of the most sexually frustrated set of comparison's I've ever heard.

@zipperface said:

"The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers,"

About as solid as a flaccid dick; and combat authenticity? I've seen more combat authenticity in lesbian scissoring; way to spin it so you can ensure more generic shooters in the future. The OFP/ArmA games have resonated pretty damn well with consumers, and the combat is more "authentic" (as can be in a video game) than MOH. It's all about finding your audience, I guess there just wasn't an audience for "shit" Mr. Moore.

I wouldn't say ArmA is that much more authentic, and it certainly isn't without essential mods like ACE. It's more of a sim, yes, but there are plenty of things that really happen to soldiers and Marines that those games don't even touch in the slightest.

Again, it's them taking advantage of "authentic" being really vague.

Hopefully Fuse's delay doesn't say anything is wrong with the project. It could be fun in a Bulletstorm (gameplay wise) sort of way which I could really go for.

Peter Moore has always been full of shit. He was just full of the shit you people wanted to hear when he was in charge of Xbox :P

They have Crysis 3 for this year. I hope Battlefield 4 isn't coming out so darn soon, EA would be served better to wait until the new hardware is out.

Hey, maybe they'll have another focus group and merge Fuse into the MoH franchise?

@MordeaniisChaos said:

I wouldn't say ArmA is that much more authentic, and it certainly isn't without essential mods like ACE. It's more of a sim, yes, but there are plenty of things that really happen to soldiers and Marines that those games don't even touch in the slightest.

Oh I agree, hence the ""authentic" (as can be in a video game)" part. No game can ever be truly authentic, but for comparison's sake MoH barely tried if at all when compared to the BIS games, at least in my opinion. His comment just seems like a scapegoat and a way for them to have an excuse not to branch out into deeper or more complex games like ArmA.

@Szlifier said:

@SirOptimusPrime said:

Hey, maybe they'll have another focus group and merge Fuse into the MoH franchise?

You think they will fuse them together?

Shut the fuck up.

<3

Wooo! That must mean Battlefield Bad Company 3! :)

We’ll likely see Medal of Honor again, but probably not as a near-future military shooter (I hope) of the last two games. Medal of Honor: Warfighter was hardly the worst shooter ever, but its obvious mediocrity, combined with a botched and heavily scrutinized PR campaign, doomed the game. Good games have enough trouble these days

'Obvious mediocrity' he wrote, with a look of absolute disdain on his face.

@Draugen said:

Wooo! That must mean Battlefield Bad Company 3! :)

O_O I never though about this... as long as theres Truckasaurus-Rex I'm sold

@Phatmac said:

I will still be the last man on earth that thinks that Fuse will be fine.

I, also think it will be great fun. May not sell well, but thats up to EA, critics and consumers.

A lot of people see the style change to less exaggerated and are ready to lump it in with MoH? Really? It will be heavily rooted in the Sci Fi shooter genre still. And it has a focus on 4 player co-op, though every shooter seems to be doing it many of them do it as an addition or afterthought. ME3 did 4 player co-op wonderfully, and that was as a distraction. Insomniac knocked the co-op in Resistance 2 out of the park and this is their chance to give it a real focus.

I really like Insomniac so I was willing to go to bat for Overstrike, but once it became Fuse I jumped ship. They'll need to resell me on the game, and from what I've seen, that probably won't happen.
 
Here's to hoping I'm pleasantly surprised, though.

The Battlefield 4 China leak was given some credibility when DICE revealed there is indeed an Air Superiority mode in End Game.

So all this is probably true.

We’ll likely see Medal of Honour again, but probably not as a near-future military shooter (I hope) of the last two games. Medal of Honour: Warfighter was hardly the worst shooter ever, but its obvious mediocrity, combined with a botched and heavily scrutinized PR campaign, doomed the game. Good games have enough trouble these days

'Obvious mediocrity' he wrote, with a look of absolute disdain on his face.

This seems like a good thing as long as their solution isn't make a Battlefield game every year.

Game development shouldn't have rotations.

Well, considering Fuse was coming out in march, and is a New IP, and considering Bioshock Infinite, Starcraft II:Heart of the Swarm, Tomb Raider, and God of War, were all coming out in March, it was probably a good idea to delay. Make sure it doesn't get buried.

@Draugen said:

Wooo! That must mean Battlefield Bad Company 3! :)

Man, that would be the best thing. I assume that it would play about the same as Battlefield 3, but I just love the feel of those games so much, and with Halo 4 being such a clunker I could sure use a non TF2 shooter to play.

Also, bravo on delaying Fuse. I think the game looks generic as hell, but at least it now has a chance to make an impression.

"The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers,"

Their arrogance is astounding; always spining everything to make it seem like it was the consumer's fault, just like how they "Clarified the ending of ME3".

One day I'd love for them to admit that they did something wrong, just once.

Don't they know yearly iterations are a bad thing?

It makes me sad that they think of their releases as a rotation, I would rather see a new game based on when you have meaningful ideas and changes for your game, not that it's on some sort of time table.

It was a predictable pile of by-the-books brownshooter shit.
 
Go back to WW2 with it.

Bad Company 3, please.

Yeah, well my Mom said MOH was fantastic and truly unique and special. A one of a kind. But jealous game critics who just don't have Moms that love them, hated on the game. And jerkface dickshits didn't buy it because they didn't appreciate how truly special it was, like my Mom said. But whatever, I'm over that now.

- peter moore.

Nothing is more authentic than Medal of Honor.

In all seriousness, that might have been some of the most soulless corporate spin that I've read in a while.

Oh man, I didn't realize that EA were the folks backing Fuse, now a whole lot about the direction that game took makes sense.

Maybe they've delayed Fuse to inject back some of the character and charm that it lost when it went all MMS (Modern Military Shooter) in art style.

One can only hope...

Wow I'm SHOCKED!

If EA is smart, and hopefully for Insomniac (those guys are awesome), they don't release Fuse anywhere near GTA 5.

"scores ... lower than it deserved"

they are delusional.

@PHenry1991 said:

Well, considering Fuse was coming out in march, and is a New IP, and considering Bioshock Infinite, Starcraft II:Heart of the Swarm, Tomb Raider, and God of War, were all coming out in March, it was probably a good idea to delay. Make sure it doesn't get buried.

Based on that (And Gears Of War Judgement), It ain't looking good for Tomb Raider and possibly even Bioshock for selling that well. Then again with what's looking like an incredibly dry summer, maybe that's when they'll hit.

It's a shame that EA, to me, is ruining Insomniac's first multi-platform game. As of now it just looks like another generic third-person shooter. The cover art is a joke. I'm sure this game won't sell. Then you will see Insomniac go back to Sony and just make games for PlayStation again since Sony pretty much let Insomniac do whatever they wanted. Who knows, maybe Insomniac likes getting bossed around by EA.

@PatchMaster said:

Bad Company 3, please.

As long as it has Bad Company 1 single player.