Apparently it was game character Jimmy Patterson screaming ‘‘Danger close! Danger close fire!’ that sealed the deal for their new team name.
”For us, rebooting Medal of Honor and taking it out of World War II into the current fight in Afghanistan is a lot like what we’ve done with the studio,” said executive producer Greg Goodrich. ”It’s a refresh. It’s an opportunity. It’s a way to get our own identity.”
EALA has been at the center of publisher downsizes with heavy losses suffered to team head counts, but all that’s in the past assures Goodrich.
”It doesn’t feel like we need to be reinvigorated. It feels like we already are,” he said. ”The deeper meaning of Danger Close is, that, yeah, we got through those times, but we’ve come out of it. We’ve got a great game we feel is going to do well.”
‘Danger Close’ is the military term used when combatants call for close-proximity fire, which could well hit them as well as the intended target. ”When an individual is calling in for danger close fire, it’s the decision to take a chance, rather than sit back and call in from afar,” continued Goodrich. Medal of Honor’s reboot arrives this October.
”For our team, ‘danger close’ is about pushing the boundaries and taking chances on telling a story we felt needed to be told. It may be controversial, but we felt it needed to be told, and we’re telling it with respect and authenticity, to shine a light on these guys.”
”A few names had been thrown around,” he said, ”but then Rich Farley, our senior creative director, was playing the game at his desk and, right then, we heard one of our characters, Jimmy Patterson – the grandson of Jimmy Patterson from the World War II era of Medal of Honor – scream out, ‘Danger close! Danger close fire!’”
”We said, ‘I think Jimmy Patterson just told us what to name our studio.’” Medal of Honor releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this October. Its multiplayer component was developed by Battlefield’s DICE, while team ‘Danger Close’ handled the singleplayer.