Battlefield 4

DICE’s Thomas Andersson on what sets Battlefield 4 apart from Call of Duty on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (interview)

Thomas Andersson likes Battlefield 4 better than Call of Duty: Ghosts. Then again, you’d expect that, as he’s the lead multiplayer designer for Battlefield 4, the new first-person shooter that debuted last week for current-generation consoles and PC and will be available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on their respective launch days.

Thomas Andersson of EA's DICE studio
Thomas Andersson of EA’s DICE studio.

So far, Battlefield 4 has come in with solid ratings, with an average score of 86 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic. Initial reviews peg Call of Duty: Ghosts at 74 out of 100. That’s a big turnabout, and it may have a lot to do with multiplayer. With Battlefield 4, as many as 64 players can fight in a single match, and a commander can direct the strategy for the players on either side. Call of Duty hasn’t matched that kind of massive online melee, but it has proven to be more popular in the past.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.