What is it about WWII that keeps gamers coming back, that keeps MoH profitable?

Gilmore: It was a world war, first of all. It touched everybody and still connects with a large variety of people. And it was a moment in history where the lines between good and evil were crisply drawn - that’s never happened before or since with such clarity. In the case of Medal of Honor it’s also the scope of it. These were missions on an epic scale, not with a hundred or a thousand guys but with tens of thousands. Market Garden was the largest single airdrop in history with over 20,000 drops... There’s nothing else in history that compares with that - the population of an entire town jumping out of aircraft and going to war. It’s a wellspring of ideas.

And yet Allied Assault is still regarded as the best MoH of all. Why is that?

Gilmore: It did a couple of things, as did Frontline [its console companion] to a degree. They were the first games to feature the Normandy beach scene, made the quintessential WWII moment by Saving Private Ryan. So it was really a breakthrough that a game could actually put you on that beach. And Allied Assault was a crafted experience; it delivered the story, the characters, and the combat and non-combat scenarios. War’s not just a parade of enemies, it really is about the language guys share when they’re on the battlefield and the way you give orders or receive objectives. Allied Assault did a great job of delivering insight into that whole combat experience.

But do people really care about character and story in a wartime FPS?

Gilmore: That used to worry me but it doesn’t any more. I feel like I’ve learned that lesson. At some point we always have to test these games purely to see how it plays, at which time none of voiceovers, characters or cinematic moments are in there. And the feedback we got when we tested Airborne at that stage was that people didn’t know who they were, why they were fighting, why they were in a given place, who they were fighting and where on Earth they were to start with. You realize the need to give personal stakes to all of this stuff.

Call of Duty 3 became a console exclusive. Can you guarantee that Airborne will be a worthy PC game?

Gilmore: We’re delivering a lot of stuff that’s exclusive to the PC, like dedicated servers, a mod-kit for using in-game assets in your own levels and customizable PC controls. A lot of the guys on the multiplayer team are PC gamers so they’re very mindful of that audience. Allied Assault unlocked a huge PC fan base which is an important part of our community; it’s not something we’ve forgotten about. Our community manager, for that matter, is always talking with those people. What you said about CoD is right, but I don’t think any of us can imagine not serving the PC market.