14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield 3 might have not managed to beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in terms of sales but the game has nonetheless been a hit for publisher Electronic Arts and, according to one leading executive, a good thing for the video game industry.
Speaking to IndustryGamers as part of a bigger interview Peter Moore, who is the Chief Operations Officer at Electronic Arts, stated, “I’m not sure that we didn’t steal any share. 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.”
Moore believes that if Battlefield 3 has not managed to get some market share from Modern Warfare 3 then it has attracted 5 million new players to the first person shooter genre, which is an equally impressive feat.
The executive added, “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.”
After the Black Friday sale Electronic Arts has announced that Battlefield 3 has managed to sell more than 8 million units all over the world.
Activision has not yet released official sales numbers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 but analysts believe that the game has already passed the 25 million units sold mark.
Both EA and Activision presumably plan to continue the fight for the FPS crown during 2012.