Since Battlefield: Bad Company 2 released in March of 2010 and EA plans to release Battlefield 3 on October 25, it's not an outlandish stretch to speculate that Electronic Arts could be adopting the annualized franchise approach made famous by Tony Hawk (now defunct), Guitar Hero (now defunct), Call of Duty (selling like banned substances at a Phish concert). Speaking to Gamerzines, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach said the studio has no plans to go down that road with Battlefield.

"The business goals for us are not to release a game every year," he said. "To us, we need the time to be able to create the next game that consumers will hopefully like. If we were to release another big Battlefield title next year, that would mean that we'd have less than a year to build it, and that would mean that we'd have to have another studio building it for us, which would mean it wouldn't have that DICE seal of approval, which would mean they'd just have to release a copy of the game we just released. Ugh, no."

Though the annualized approach has gained a wider adoption over the past few years, Bach says Electronic Arts isn't forcing the concept onto the franchise.

"EA would never force us to release a game every year," he said. "I think that would dilute the vision of the franchise, and you will eventually kill the franchise by doing that."

To keep its content hungry fans satiated, DICE is much more content to release expansions like Bad Company 2's Vietnam pack.

"I think that's a more healthy way of expanding on the game experience. It's not a new game but a twist on your old game, and I think that's a healthier way of looking at a franchise rather than just trying to cram every single last penny out of it."

To read more about Battlefield 3, visit our BF3 hub.