The new game is already being demoed for a number of executives

Feb 21, 2013 14:11 GMT  ·  By

Michael Pachter, an analyst working with Wedbush Morgan, believes that the Battlefield franchise from developer DICE and publisher Electronic Arts will sell better than the Call of Duty series from Activision on the coming Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4.

The analyst tells The Official Xbox Magazine that, “The CoD franchise is at or near its peak annual sales potential, and we’ll likely see sales stabilize. Battlefield 4′s launching next autumn and new consoles are coming out, so this is likely to affect sales.”

Pachter believes that Activision and developers like Treyarch and Infinity Ward will have to work hard in order to introduce innovation to Call of Duty to move it past the Black Ops phase.

He adds, “Activision could always make a mistake, but the franchise is so important to it that a serious error is unlikely. The biggest risk is consumer fatigue.”

The CEO of GameStop has already revealed that Battlefield 4 is being demoed behind closed doors by Electronic Arts and apparently, the quality of the experience is very impressive, even if no actual footage or screenshots have yet emerged.

DICE has already revealed that it is focusing on the evolution of the Frostbite 2 engine and making sure that it can use the expanded processing power of the next generation of home consoles.

It’s interesting to note that Electronic Arts did not have an actual presence at the reveal of the PlayStation 4, despite the fact that rivals like Ubisoft and Activision offered information about their own future projects.

Activision has revealed, via its financial projections, that it is working on a new Call of Duty video game, although the publisher has not offered details on the content or on the team that will handle development.

More announcements will probably be made around E3 and when Microsoft reveals the Xbox 720.