Battlefield 3

THE BUZZ: Thought the battle of words would be over between EA and Activision once Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 shipped? Think again!

Before those games launched, Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore said that Battlefield 3‘s goal wouldn’t need to be outselling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3—it just had to eat into the latter’s market share. Now that sales numbers have started coming in, Moore says that’s exactly what is happening.

“Two entities have benefited from Call of Duty and Battlefield being on the market: gamers and the industry (retailers and people who rely on the ability to sell big blockbuster games),” Moore told Gamespot. “Together we’ve grown the genre enormously. Ten million [copies of Battlefield 3] sold in and 5 million sold through doesn’t come out of nowhere—if we haven’t gained share, that means in the first week we’ve added 5 million new FPS gamers.”

Moore went on to say that come the end of EA’s current fiscal year (which ends on March 31st of next year), it will be clear that Battlefield 3 has taken share away from Activision’s mammoth franchise.

EGM’s TAKE: For those who love either Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3—or both—one game being a success will make the other better. If Battlefield 3 is more of a threat to Call of Duty, Activision will make sure their series improves. If Call of Duty continues to beat Battlefield in sales, EA will make sure DICE continues to push to make better and better games.

At the end of the day, both franchises being successful is nothing but good for the genre.

Source: Gamespot