We are in for quite a fight this year as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 go head to head in their attempts to capture one of the most popular and lucrative markets in gaming.
Modern Warfare 3 is definitely arriving with force, but EA and DICE aren’t going to be waving their white flag anytime soon.
Reported on IGN, Arvind Bhatia of financial services firm Sterne Agee – who’s name you may have seen in gaming news before – has said that EA revealed their figure this week, confident in their titles success.
He also says that he thinks that Battlefield 3 has the ability to actually keep up with Modern Warfare 3 and while I think that the Battlefield franchise is hugely popular and the game itself is looking amazing, that’s still a tall order when going up against a titan like Call of Duty.
This is what he had to say:
“The combined marketing dollars for BF3 and Call of Duty: MW 3 could reach $100 million this year. The two week head start for BF3 versus CoD will facilitate a big launch for BF3,â€
“Once CoD launches, there would be a natural slowdown in sales of BF3. Then, at holiday, momentum for BF3 should rebuild. BF3 is expected to have a long tail as more digital content is introduced over time.â€
The report does bring up a very good point risen by Bhatia, in that Battlefield 3 pre-orders will be graced with a map pack for free, which if not pre-ordered, will have to be bought separately. It also doesn’t hurt that it includes one of the most popular Battlefield 2 maps of all time, which has undergone a major facelift for the new title.
EA are obviously hoping to beat out the sales of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which has made a whopping 9.5 million sales over its life and with Battlefield 3 looking so much more impressive and having a massive amount of resources going to marketing, I don’t doubt that it will.
Is Modern Warfare 3 in trouble though? Of course not, it’s going to sell kajillions.
Have you pre-ordered Battlefield 3? Are you going to or have you already promised yourself to another? It’s out for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on October 25.
Last Updated: September 22, 2011