Battlefield 3

THE BUZZ: EA CFO Eric Brown announced today that pre-orders for Battlefield 3 have hit around the 1.25 million mark, which is better and faster than any previous Battlefield game in the same amount of time.

If you’re wondering how that compares to the Call of Duty franchise—pretty good actually. That number is “roughly comparable” to where Call of Duty: Black Ops was in the same timeframe according to analyst firm Cowen & Company. (Black Ops went on to sell 20 million copies.)

Because of that, the firm has upgraded their first-year sales estimates for Battlefield 3 from 8 million to 11 million.

EGM’s TAKE: These numbers are good news for both EA and DICE, as it seems all of the hard work to get the first-person shooter community to really take notice of Battlefield 3 is indeed paying off.

Source: Games Industry