In November, EA and DICE will release Battlefield 3 to the masses. From what we’ve seen so far, the game looks unbelievable and the CEOs of nVidia and ATI must be cackling with glee. There is no doubt that EA is going after Activision’s crown for best military FPS publisher. The Call of Duty series has been a financial success and gamer favourite for years now, but EA has plans to topple Activision’s domination.
EA boss John Riccitiello has openly discussed EA’s plans for military FPS domination. He claims that over the next few months leading up to Battlefield 3’s November release, both EA and Activision will together spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising their respective franchises.
Riccitiello gave a presentation at a recent Ad Age Conference in New York. He certainly has a lot of faith in his product, but judging by what we’ve all seen of Battlefield 3 so far, that faith might be well placed.
“This November we’re launching Battlefield 3. It’s going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the number one game in the industry – a game that last year did $400 million in revenue on day one. This game is designed to take that game down. If you’re looking for a battle of the titans – Red Sox vs Yankees… Microsoft or Google – and what the tip-off point is for this holiday season, this is it. There will be a couple of hundred million dollars of marketing against these two products going head to head. Similar designs – we think we’ve got the better product – it’s going to be a blast.â€
Now that’s some fighting talk if we’ve ever seen it! It will be very interesting to see what happens between these two franchises. There is growing anti-COD sentiments around the internet, hinting that Activision’s well-milked FPS title could be losing appeal. Whether another military FPS will be able to recapture the waning attention of Call of Duty fans remains to be seem.
Source: Eurogamer
Last Updated: April 7, 2011
