David Goldfarb responds to the discovery of Battlefield 3’s ‘hostile’ Easter Egg

Former DICE employee David Goldfarb has responded to the unearthing of Battlefield 3's hardest-to-find Easter Egg. The "hostile Goldfarb in your area" audio file that had been hidden for the nearly two years Battlefield 3 has been out was recently discovered, ending a months-long investigation. And for the ex-Battlefield 3 level designer its discovery came as a great surprise.

"This was unexpected," Goldfarb told Eurogamer. Granted, the actual in-game Easter Egg wasn't seen; only the audio file was found by hacking into the game's files. To find hear the actual Easter Egg in the game, you need to meet the most ridiculous conditions while playing Battlefield 3. It's something like a 1-in-2,000 chance.

Here's what Goldfarb recalled of the Easter Egg.

"I worked with [voice-over producer] Tomas Danko, the guy who's responsible for this, on four games – Bad Company 1, 2, Mirror's Edge and Battlefield 3," Goldfarb explained. "He must have done it sometime when we were in crunch, which is when I don't really remember much of what was happening.

"I kind of remember Stefan [Strandberg, audio director on BF3] saying 'we put something in, you're going to find it funny!' And then I forgot about it. And then I saw this thing come out, and all these people started messaging me… It's funny because I've been known to be hostile.

"All of my DICE friends were like, 'Dave! Have you seen this!?' They totally did it without my knowledge. I feel almost guilty it's come out… It's kind of weird it's come out now, just as I'm working on this other game."

Goldfarb is currently working on Payday 2, a game being developed by the much smaller team at Overkill, a subsidiary of Starbreeze. Although he has nothing but the "greatest respect" for DICE, Goldfarb explained that he was "burned out" at DICE.

"I'd gotten to the point where I had become the hostile Goldfarb… hence my departure," he concluded.

[Eurogamer]