14 DAY TRIAL // Online retailer Amazon.uk has announced that pre-order numbers for Battlefield 3, the first person shooter from developer DICE and publisher Electronic Arts, are now 2,302 percent more numerous that those made for Battlefield 2, the previous title in the series.
It's not clear whether the increase in pre-orders is linked to the increased publicity that Battlefield 3 has been receiving, mainly because of the new Frostbite 2 engine and its rivalry with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, or to the increased propensity from gamers to order their gaming packages from Amazon.
The company also says that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has seen an increase in pre-orders of 488 percent when compared to its predecessor, Among Thieves, while the increase for Gears of War 3, the third person shooter from Epic Games and Microsoft, came in at 216%.
Amazon.uk has also offered figures for FIFA 12, which has seen an increase of 325 percent over the version of the game that arrived during last year, while the increase for Batman: Arkham City when compared to Arkham Asylum stands at 349%.
There are also figures for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, from Infinity Ward, which has been 321 percent more pre-ordered than Black Ops, which was created by Treyarch.
This all seems to point to a good Christmas sales period, especially for the AAA titles that will compete for the end of the year awards and for the title of best selling game of the year.
This significant increase in pre-orders might not be translated into more overall sales, as more and more gamers put down a pre-order so that they can get access to some exclusive content or to get into the beta of another title.
It's also unlikely that hardware sales, especially for home consoles, will be pushed up by the fact that more titles are seeing increases in pre-orders.