Battlefield 3 is EA's big competitor this fall for the shooter genre, and the company intends to use its two-week window before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches to its advantage. It was only a couple weeks ago that EA said 1.25 million units had been pre-ordered and now that figure has risen to 1.5 million.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia has revealed that EA noted the 1.5 million reservations for Battlefield 3 this week. Bhatia noted that the included map pack for BF3 has been a nice incentive for consumers to pre-order.
He commented on the pending shooter showdown: "Management remains optimistic that the title has potential to exceed sales of its predecessor (Battlefield Bad Company 2), which has sold through 9.5 million units life-to-date. Critical ratings for BF3 should be at least 80. 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. 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. At peak, BF3 had more than 100 developers. Note that BF3 will include a map pack if the game is pre-ordered. This $15 to $20 value should be a big incentive for customers to pre-order BF3. The mix of BF3 should be 60% US and 40% international."
As much as we all love to focus on the shooter battle this holiday, some have pointed out that the overall market for the genre continues to grow and both games can succeed without necessarily taking big share from one or the other.
