DICE goads "lazy" competitors

Battlefield studio DICE has sent a stark warning to its competitors in the first person shooter space.

The developer – which is working on EA’s Battlefield 3 – said its rivals had better watch out” for its upcoming game. Its biggest rivals include Call of Duty’s Infinity Ward and Treyarch.

Our competitors are getting lazy,” DICE general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson told Official PlayStation Magazine, as reported by CVG.

They’re using the same engine, the same recipe for building a game. At some point you need to take that leap. I haven’t seen them take that leap since a long time ago.

We are doing that now. They had better watch out. We are coming for them.

"Our competitors keep building very, very high tempo games. We want to tell a story with more drama curves. It’s not about pumping round after round for six hours."

Battlefield 3 is due for release later this year. It’s the follow-up to 2010’s successful military shooter.

The next Call of Duty game has yet to receive an official release date, but if it follows the launch pattern of previous titles, it will likely hit shelves in Q4 this year.