2011 has been the year of the rivalry, with Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 dominating the headlines. In between gameplay videos, numerous comparisons and a little mud-slinging, the two giants created an interesting dynamic, with a lot of players standing by their preferred FPS title.
The two titles have both released to generally favourable reviews and scores, as well as fan appreciation, but predictably, the latest COD title stole the sales crown in terms of sheer numbers and copies sold.
But it’s not as if it was an easy race to the finish, something that EA COO Peter Moore believes, claiming that Battlefield 3 took a significant market share away from Activision and Modern Warfare 3 this year.
Speaking to IndustryGamers, Moore said that while the market figures are still coming in at an early stage, the stats did look favourable towards EA. “I’m not sure that we didn’t steal any share”, Moore said.
“It’s early days and we’re only a month in, we feel very good about it. Two entities have benefited from Call of Duty and Battlefield being on the market: gamers and the industry. Together we’ve grown the genre enormously.”
“10 million 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. “I think when the dust fully settles, maybe when we’re looking at this at the end of our fiscal year (March 31) we’ll do an analysis and I think we will have taken share.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, unless everything BF3 sells is just incremental.”
Regardless of market share, 2011 has been a profitable year for both publishers, raking in far more cash than even the movie industry, although Moore states that EA is now more interested in feedback at this stage.
“I’m more focused on how we’ve done by our gamer and consumers, and yes many of them bought both games undoubtedly. Have our retail partners enjoyed this? Absolutely. And does this help push the game industry to the front pages of newspapers? You bet it does.
Go look at USA Today, go look at The New York Times – the big entertainment blockbusters this year are not movies, they’re video games. Call of Duty and Battlefield have done that.”
Final numbers have yet to revealed though, especially after the consumer-orgy that happened during this years Black Friday, but analysts are predicting over 8 million units of Battlefield 3 have been purchased.
Last Updated: December 8, 2011
