Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Preview

VideoGamer.com: The Bad Company 2's beta is PS3 and PC exclusive. Why did you decide to do that?

GVD: It's just logistics. If we could have done a beta on all of them we would have. We can't go into all the details, because some of it has to do with legal stuff, but it was really just logistics. There was no, we want to do it on the PS3 and then go to Sony and then they grease us for doing it. No. It was like, we need to do this, we need to do it in these time frames, and we were open to all options. Unfortunately it didn't work out for Xbox 360, but it was nobody's fault and it wasn't a predetermined decision. It wasn't a personal thing, absolutely not. We would have given it to everyone if we could have, but it just didn't work out that way.

VideoGamer.com: When you realised the beta wasn't coming to the Xbox 360, did your heart sink a little bit because of the tribal fanboy nature of the console war?

GVD: Absolutely. I have no animosity. I actually like both consoles. They both have their pros and cons, and I don't think either one of them is perfect, but I enjoy the hell out of both of them. They provide the entertainment I want, the same as the PC. Now they [gamers] have this ability, we have these communication tools that are so lightning fast and all of these forms and all of these hubs for people to talk and debate about these, that you just see it a lot more and it's easier to see. I'm sure in the schoolyard there are kids arguing it out and talking smack there as well.

VideoGamer.com: Another thing that popped up lately was a study that claimed game reviews have almost no bearing on game sales. What's your take on that as a developer? Do they matter? As a developer, how do they fit into the picture?

GVD: They do matter to us. You guys play a lot more games than the average consumer, so probably your perspective is slightly different. It's a measurement of our peers, even though you're our peers in a different area. You look at it more like that. You guys are looking at it and judging it from more of a professional view. It's just like movies. You see movies that make tons of money but the critics review it as crap. That's almost the nature of the beast. Reading that report, in some ways it was like, duh. The most interesting part was how strong still word of mouth is, and how important that is, and the fact that people used to complain about people making the same game or making a continuation, but that's the strongest driving factor - them knowing a franchise and drawing upon that and saying, I liked that game for that franchise so I'm going to buy the next one. And pack art still is a very valuable selling tool. These simple things that you can easily forget about are still the most important things. I've been in different industries and that's always such a huge thing: brand - Coke gets that for sure - and word of mouth. Those things are so valuable still.

VideoGamer.com: The only problem is some people stop doing new IP for that reason.

GVD: It is a scary thing, but also people can get tired and then they do seek that new idea, that new thing. System Shock - but what came out of it was BioShock. BioShock was a more accessible version of System Shock. A bigger amount of people got it and enjoyed it and that company continued to be successful. I think that that's the key.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is due out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 5.