Battlefield is one of those franchises that's become a staple of PC gaming. The large scale conflict involving vehicles on land and in air has proven so popular, it's spawned its own sub-genre of imitators. Battlefield 1942 and its myriad sequels and expansions were singlehandedly responsible for EA's acquisition of DICE in 2006.

While recent PC entries in the series (including Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142) have been successful, the winds of change have been blowing since the franchise was established at the front end of this decade. For one, console shooters have been on the rise and the new consoles are better capable of handling large scale engagements. These reasons, and some harsh market realities, have led to the creation of Battlefield: Bad Company, a departure for the series in at least a few ways.

We caught up with Brad Bennett, Product Manager at EA, and we talked about this whole new Battlefield.

Getting paid in solid gold bars
According to the NPD, Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360 was the sixth best selling title overall for the month of June. System by system, the game was the second best seller on the Xbox 360 and the third best seller on the PS3. Battlefield: Bad Company ended up selling 390,000 units across both platforms, with 346,800 copies on the Xbox 360 alone.

"We were very pleased with the results from our launch," said Bennett. "Battlefield: Bad Company has been able to provide our Battlefield fans a well rounded experience with a robust single player story and an exciting best in class multiplayer."

"I would describe it as high production, Jerry Bruckheimer-esque value for our players that only encourage more destruction. The payoff for blowing out the wall of a building makes it worth the eye candy alone."

The numbers are certainly encouraging for DICE, who have only released one other console game to date in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. Unlike that game, Battlefield: Bad Company tries to have a more personal story for the player to experience, and is the first game in the Battlefield series to be designed from the ground up for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Holy cow, that's a sweet explosion!

"[We think the game performs] exceptionally well in terms of game quality and experience," explained Bennett. "This was a huge team effort providing not only an amazing multiplayer but a focus on our single player storyline. In addition, we were able to build this experience on a totally new engine, Frostbite, allowing for destructible environments and high dynamic audio all in the traditional sandbox experience."