EA rejected DICE’s Battlefield 1 pitch, but a demo convinced them

A majority of gamers are absolutely fawning over the freshly announced Word War 1-themed Battlefield game, Battlefield 1. The game's first official trailer is sitting at the number one spot on YouTube for being the most liked trailer on all of YouTube.

Anyone that is excited for the game should consider themselves lucky. According to EA Studios boss, Patrick Söderlund, DICE's initial concept was "absolutely rejected" when they first pitched it.

"It wasn't the most obvious choice," Söderlund said during the EA Investor Day briefings (via IGN) yesterday. "When the team presented to me the idea of World War 1 I absolutely rejected it. I said 'World War 1 is a trench war, it can't be fun to play'."

Regardless of Söderlund's rejection, DICE kept at it. They decided that words couldn't properly illustrate their vision, but a demo could.

"The team continued and persisted in the fact that this can be fun, and showed up with a very short demo that convinced me at least that this was the right path. The good news is whenever you take creative risks and it works, you actually can get to substantial success."

While Söderlund was convinced of what DICE could achieve with the game, he remains cautious. The idea might be a success so far, but it has to be a good game in the end.

"I think that the World War 1 theme is resonating with players out there, I think we have done something that will be right for the franchise and right for EA [but] we have to remember that so far we've only shown one trailer, and yes it's gotten a lot of success, but what's important is now we have to go back and make sure we deliver on the full promise of what Battlefield can be – and that we will do."

With the history DICE has with the Battlefield games, it doesn't seem hard to believe that DICE will deliver on gameplay. They just have to get the right pace for the WWI based game.