While a captivating illustration of Mirror’s Edge was visible behind its interlocutor at the time of the interview, journalist Christopher Dring was curious to know if DICE still intended to give itself some air by working on something other than FPS. The answer was negative but argued. “We’re only focused on Battlefield 2042. There’s no time for anything else and that’s our choice. Within three years, we want to become the FPS powerhouse that DICE deserves to be and that’s our goal. I want the team to be really proud of Battlefield 2042 and really proud of DICE. We want to become the number 1 FPS studio in Europe and one of the biggest in the world. It’s a fabulous team and we will work miracles together“, says Rebecka Coutaz.
After 10 years at Ubisoft Annecy, a studio that she saw grow from 70 to 340 employees on projects like Steep and Riders Republic, Rebecka Coutaz took over as CEO of DICE as part of a period of transformation . After running the show as boss at Respawn Entertainment, Vince Zamp was put in charge of the Battlefield franchise while some DICE executives packed their bags, including general manager Oskar Gabrielson and design director Fawzi Mesmar.
As a sign of the times, the Games Industry interview points out that DICE is gradually moving towards being a specialized game-as-a-service studio, as opposed to releasing a game with a few expansions and quickly starting work on the next game. Fortunately for the Swedish studio, it is no longer the only one supporting a big franchise like Battlefield. If Criterion is now fully dedicated to Need for Speed, Battlefield 2042 is still backed by EA Gothenburg (formerly Ghost Games) and Ripple Effect Studios (formerly DICE Los Angeles). At the same time, the Industrial Toys studio is leading the development of the first Battlefield Mobile.
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