Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 take first two spots

Nov 10, 2011 22:31 GMT  ·  By

Despite the strong line-up of fall releases, which includes such titles as the new Batman, the coming Skyrim and the already releases Super Mario 3D Land, Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3 and Battlefield 3, analysts are not yet ready to say that by the end of 2011 the holiday season would have been better than the similar period of 2010.

Colin Sebastian, who is an analyst working with R.W. Baird, told Eurogamer that, “It's a strong release slate, that's very clear. There will be a good amount of high quality games for the holidays, but I don't think the overall demand for traditional video games is any different than it was six months ago. Seasonally it is, so you'll see a ramp up in sales, but it's still a sluggish market overall.”

Billy Pidgeon, who works as senior analyst for M2 Research, added, “It looks very strong. People who are looking for hardcore games have plenty of choices, and there's a good slate of must-have games this holiday season – and that's going to spur other sales, like hardware and more online sales of the add-ons.”

More accurate predictions about the video game market will be made after Black Friday, when the shopping season is set to start.

John Taylor, who is an analyst with Arcadia, says that one big risk for this year is that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and their rivalry drain so much revenue from the video game market that other big releases might struggle to reach their pre-launch estimates.

The battle for third place in terms of sales is being fought between Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

When it comes to hardware all analysts are rather pessimistic, saying that bundles and offers might lead to small increases in the sales numbers of the Nintendo 3DS and that the home console market will see a decline when it comes to retail value.