This doesn’t appear to be a new studio, as such. EA is restructuring and part of that process appears to be the renaming and expansion of the studio that has most recently been known as Danger Close.
Danger Close has gone through a number of names since it was purchased (as DreamWorks Interactive) back in 2000. It was subsequently merged with EA Pacific and Westwood to become EA Los Angeles. Then it was finally renamed as Danger Close. Now it seems set for some expansion and another rebranding as DICE Los Angeles.
An article in the Wall Street Journal (paywalled) has outed the reorganisation of the studio that was largely responsible for the single player portions of the two most recent Medal of Honor games. While those games weren’t exactly the pinnacle of first person shooting this generation, there were a few good ideas and plenty of enjoyable elements, at least in the first of the reboots.
The studio is already expanding and hopes to add another 60 members of staff before the end of the year. They’ll be working on EA’s new Star Wars licenses, with many hoping for something along the lines of a Battlefront sequel. I personally think that’s a little unlikely – Battlefront as a title is too similar to Battlefield and EA won’t want to confuse people over two of its own releases. Battlefront by another name (Republic Commando, perhaps?) is still very feasible though.
bmg_123
Battlefield: Battlefront – EA’s futuristic competitor to Black Ops 2 with a smidgen of Star wars sprinkled on…
teflon
So they actually have nothing to do with DICE at all, and this is really a thinly veiled point of subterfuge, reassociating a flagging development studio with a brand which is still well regarded?
Hopefully they’ll actually give them the time they need to develop as near a flawless product as they can, this time around.
Peter Chapman
Yeah, like they did with the BioWare name before. It’s just a branding thing but there is some expansion going on too.
Shame, I really liked Danger Close’s logo.
Forrest_01
Ah, nice to know i’m not the only one that can appreciate a good logo! :)
Eldur
I actually loved the campaign from Danger Close’s first Medal of Honor. It’s the best modern military campaign I’ve played so far.
Peter Chapman
I agree, but not many do!
And the campaign from Warfighter was a bit of a mess.
Eldur
I decided to skip Warfighter, based largely on Alex’s review, as EA appeared to have eschewed the humanity of MoH’s campaign for a more ‘me-too’, world hopping, CoD approach to storytelling. A shame.
cam_manutd
I second that one also.
KeRaSh
Not sure people would confuse Battlefield and Battlefront. One of those titles would have STAR WARS plastered all over the front…
If someone manages to confuse the two and buy the wrong game, the money still goes into EA’s pocket unless it’s returned for a refund. If they’re unable to return it because they realized it too late, they will have to spend more money to actually get the right game and they only have themselves to blame.
Also, there’s always the possibility to change the name while the rest of the game stays the same.
gazzagb
I said this would happen, that EA would abuse DICE’s name and popularity. I bet the guys at DICE aren’t too happy, it’s a clever idea from EA, but if past games are to go by, Danger Close are just going to damage DICE’s name.
xdarkmagician
This is about as low as publishers get. They could always hire Danger Close some better talent, give them a bigger budget/more time, or maybe just let them make something original…. but nope, lets just change their name to the same as a more competent, beloved developer. If creating success is as simple as a name change maybe EA should consider changing their name to NOTEA
Motalla
Dice without swedes, that just D. I think it will play out like Ubisoft. When it is made by Ubisoft Montreol, you know it is gold. Ubisoft Shanghai, that’s crap
Broonba
Man, I’d give my left nut for a new SW Battlefront game on PS4. Actually, thinking about it, left or right, I’m not fussed. :)
Binky bonky boo, I smell of poo.