MULTI Modern Warfare 3 to double Battlefield 3 holiday sales - Analyst

[Omyakha]

Electronic Arts has made a point of targeting Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with its own heavily marketed Battlefield 3, but the DICE-developed military first-person shooter is expected to be vastly overshadowed in terms of sales. In a Forbes article today, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter predicted that EA's effort would move millions, but still be outsold 2:1 by Activision's blockbuster shooter series.


Pachter predicts Modern Warfare will easily retain the sales crown this year.
Pachter projects that Battlefield 3 will sell 8 million copies this year, while Modern Warfare 3 will move 16 million copies this holiday season. Battlefield 3 launches tomorrow, while Modern Warfare 3 will follow in two weeks, with a November 8 release date. Pachter estimates the two games will combine to generate $1.4 billion in sales for the holidays, and represent about 15 percent of retail game sales for the quarter.

In addition to coming out of the gate quicker, Modern Warfare 3 is expected to have longer legs at retail, according to Pachter. The analyst pegged potential 2012 sales for Battlefield 3 at 2 million copies, while he could see Modern Warfare 3 adding 8 million copies to its sales total next year.

Although the analyst has sales of EA's effort being more than doubled, the publisher may still consider that a victory. In August, EA COO Peter Moore said the goal with Battlefield 3 was not to outsell Modern Warfare 3, but to eat into Call of Duty's market share.

"If you look at last year, you might argue that Call of Duty took maybe 90 percent of the market share," Moore told GameSpot. "We think we can knock that down to 70 percent this year. We don't have to outsell Call of Duty to have a very successful year. This is a long-term strategy to be a major player, if not ultimately a dominant player in this industry. But it starts this year."

 

[MrJayPlays]

No doubt it will break the sale record for BF3

 

[R3Z0N]

Well that's pretty much a given, everyone knows COD sells like crazy =p

 

[Spyder]

I'm up for MW3! That too legit for PC

 

[TrueCoolGuy]

 

[dexter786]

but i'll play both :wink2:

 

[abobobilly]

We think we can knock that down to 70 percent this year.

We don't have to outsell Call of Duty to have a very successful year

As always, Battlefield 3's Multiplayer part is where it ACTUALLY shines. Who cares which game "SELLS" more ... considering people like me who dont even "BUY" It

There are people who were boasting about BF3 like crazy, but after playing it ... they are not satisfied enough. (My game is still downloading so i'll see if it changes my mind)
Also, if i am right ... BF3 was advertised much more than Modern Warfare 3, and not 'just' advertised, but boasted ... in a better way. So Theoretically speaking, it SHOULD outsell the MW series.

 

[manigamer]

Well that's pretty much a given, everyone knows COD sells like crazy =p

judging by the vast amount of glitches ppl are screaming about here for bf3, its flaws and such, mw3 would beat it.. PLUS its modern warfare

 

[kitt85]

COD is an established franchise and very well known amongst gamers and even non-gamers so it is obvious it's going to sell more than BF 3 but anything can happen,changes are inevitable.However the sales of a paritcular medium is never proportional to it's quality.

 

[Serious Sam]

I am so! badly! waiting to continue where i left off in MW2.

 

[abobobilly]

judging by the vast amount of glitches ppl are screaming about here for bf3, its flaws and such, mw3 would beat it.. PLUS its modern warfare

So indirectly you are imply that MW3 will be free from bugs or glitches.
lol. You are TOO Optimistic.

 

[Serious Sam]

off-topic abobobilly, hopefully it will continue the trend. MW2 was pretty much bug free... wasn't it?

 

[Yasir]

^.....................lol

 

[Roark]

off-topic abobobilly, hopefully it will continue the trend. MW2 was pretty much bug free... wasn't it?

No it had it's fair share of bugs, as did black ops, though they were quickly rectified in days.

However, games with the production value of COD & BF, they should be as bug free as possible. I'm honestly noticing a trend these days that devs just throw unfinished games out and post patch them. Dead Island wasn't working till a good month into the game's release and by then everyone had lost interest.

It's not like consumer's pay them 80% of the game price and then give them the rest 2 months later, quality control in games is really going down the drain these days. A regulatory body or possibly the parent console company needs to sort this out. If you're liable for legal action for selling an unfinished product like let's say a tv, tshirt, or half cooked crisps. Why not in this case, it's surely a breach of contract.

 

[Serious Sam]

No it had it's fair share of bugs, as did black ops, though they were quickly rectified in days.

However, games with the production value of COD & BF, they should be as bug free as possible. I'm honestly noticing a trend these days that devs just throw unfinished games out and post patch them. Dead Island wasn't working till a good month into the game's release and by then everyone had lost interest.

It's not like consumer's pay them 80% of the game price and then give them the rest 2 months later, quality control in games is really going down the drain these days. A regulatory body or possibly the parent console company needs to sort this out. If you're liable for legal action for selling an unfinished product like let's say a tv, tshirt, or half cooked crisps. Why not in this case, it's surely a breach of contract.

Can you tell me what kind of bugs were there in Single Player? because i didn't encounter any. and as for Black Ops, YES! that game is filled with bugs. It has like 7 or 8 Patches to date.

 

[TrueCoolGuy]

No it had it's fair share of bugs, as did black ops, though they were quickly rectified in days.

However, games with the production value of COD & BF, they should be as bug free as possible. I'm honestly noticing a trend these days that devs just throw unfinished games out and post patch them. Dead Island wasn't working till a good month into the game's release and by then everyone had lost interest.

It's not like consumer's pay them 80% of the game price and then give them the rest 2 months later, quality control in games is really going down the drain these days. A regulatory body or possibly the parent console company needs to sort this out. If you're liable for legal action for selling an unfinished product like let's say a tv, tshirt, or half cooked crisps. Why not in this case, it's surely a breach of contract.

This has not gone un-noticed in the eyes of many developers. A few months back, David Jaffe (Creator of the God of War and Twisted Metal series) said similar things in the previous years GDC. He said that Game Developers should be restricted to 4 patches only through out the games life. He said that it shouldn't be mandatory to have to update the 1st week you buy the game.

When big name devs start talking about stuff like this, everyone starts to listen. I'm sure Sony took Jaffe's words into deep consideration. I'll forgive the unfinished games that we get on current gen consoles but when next gen consoles hit the shelves, like PS4 or XBox 720. Unfinished games better be a thing of the past cuz what kind of next gen console is bothered by unfinished code or lame visual glitches? That stuff doesn't sound next gen to me