After suffering from poor sales and mixed reviews, Electronic Arts has decided to put Medal of Honor away – possibly for good. Techspot reports that the modern military franchise has been removed from the publisher’s shooter rotation, leaving Fuse and a potential Battlefield 4 to pick up the slack. EA’s COO Peter Moore was quoted as saying, “Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved. This one is behind us now.”
I find it difficult to be surprised about this. The resurrection of the Medal of Honor franchise seemed doomed from the start as its “modern warfare” angle meant the game was entering a market dominated by Activision’s annual Call of Duty series as well as EA’s own Battlefield franchise. And because Medal of Honor didn’t do enough to break out of the shadow cast by these two giants, it seemed inevitable that the reboot would ultimately fade away.
It’s a real shame that Medal of Honor will be remembered as a failed attempt to turn the modernize a classic series. Originally developed by Steven Spielberg as a companion piece to the growing interest in World War II in the late 1990s, Medal of Honor took players on a PG-13 version of the war against Nazi Germany through the eyes of those who waged singular battles against them. The franchise spawned a number of popular entries including Medal of Honor: Frontline and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and longstanding members of the development team would eventually leave to create the original Call of Duty.
So long, Medal of Honor. May you be remembered fondly.
