BFBC2 cannot support modding yet
Written by David Stellmack
Friday, 05 March 2010, 05:21

Changes necessary for PC version of Frostbite

The Battlefield franchise has a long and successful history of allowing the community to express themselves by modding the game itself. DICE has had a very strong and deep commitment to the modding community in the past; and it seems that when Battlefield Bad Company 2 was released, it was as if almost overnight a switch was flipped when the company chose to no longer support modding.

Actually, the situation has more to do with the Frostbite engine on the PC that is used to power Battlefield Bad Company 2 than the company’s decision to cease support of the modding community. As things stand today, the tools that are used to develop and create content on the Frostbite engine are just not there. What that means is currently in-house the company is not using a standalone toolset to develop for the Frostbite engine, and that they can’t simply package up the tools and make them available to the community.

DICE hopes at some point in the future to be able to provide the modding community with the necessary tools to develop content for the PC version of the Frostbite engine. While there is no time line on this as of yet, it is something that the studio is taking very seriously and they have it on their “to do” list. It is more a matter of time and resources at this point, from what we understand

1st OFAW BC2 Server Up

Our First server is now running The server is in San Jose, California and running conquest mode.

Feedback on the forums is welcome and more OFAW BC2 servers will be posted soon

Enjoy

Activision Publishing Reveals New Plans for Call of Duty(R) Franchise

--Company to Establish Dedicated Business Unit to Focus on Product Excellence and Brand Expansion --Company Confirms New Call of Duty Game To Be Released in 2011 --Activision Publishing Plans to Launch Call of Duty in New Genres and Asia

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 2, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced new strategic plans for the Call of Duty(R) franchise, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time.

The plans include the formation of a dedicated business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world. The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard(R) Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.

"2010 will be another important year for the Call of Duty franchise," stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. "In addition to continued catalog sales, new downloadable content from Infinity Ward and a new Call of Duty release, we are excited about the opportunity to bring the franchise to new geographies, genres and players."

The company expects to release a new Call of Duty game from Treyarch this fall. In addition, Infinity Ward is in development on the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare(R) 2 for release in 2010.

The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre. Sledgehammer is helmed by industry veterans Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey. Prior to joining Activision Publishing, Schofield was the Executive Producer of the award-winning game, Dead Space and Michael Condrey was the Sr. Development Director on the game. The Dead Space franchise has won more than 80 industry awards worldwide including the prestigious A.I.A.S. Action Game of the Year and two B.A.F.T.A.S.

The Call of Duty business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing's Asia Pacific region and previously served in senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Activision Publishing veterans Steve Pearce, chief technology officer and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will lead Infinity Ward on an interim basis. Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward.

Lastly, Activision Publishing announced that the company is in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the franchise to Asia, one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision Publishing and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com.
 

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Day 1 Map Pack

As Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes out next week, I'll tell you about the Day 1 map pack that is available to all players who purchase the game and apply their VIP code which comes with the game at no extra charge. The map pack contains two new maps which are the Rush map, Nelson Bay and the Conquest map, Laguna Alta which you can check out in the video now. The maps will be available from March 2nd which will allow the lucky North America players to get access and practice while us Europeans wait a few days more.

Bad Company 2 PC beta now over

DICE
As you know, the BETA of Bad Company 2 has now ended. The game servers are now being shut down and EA is changing over to the retail version of the game in time for launch of the game on the 2nd/4th/5th March depending on where you are.
We picked up a lot of useful information from you all and managed to fix a number of issues and gave us other issues to look at before launch. Development of Bad Company 2 PC will still go ahead at full speed to sort out remaining issues and implement some of your requests where possible.

We hope you enjoyed what you had available to you and that you are all looking forward to the launch.

Thanks from everyone here at DICE for your participation