Battlefield 3 breaks sales records with 5 million units, but will Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 steal the limelight?

Michael Foley November 1, 2011 5
Battlefield 3 breaks sales records with 5 million units, but will Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 steal the limelight?

EA’s Battlefield 3 sees massive sales in its first week, shattering two different records for the video game company. Not only did EA ship an incredible 10 million units on its first day, but it also sold an all-time high of 5 million in its first week on the market. The game costs around $60 per unit so the company can celebrate an addition of about $300 million to its revenue base.

While these numbers are nothing to scoff at, EA’s primary competitor, Activision, will put them to the test soon enough with the launch of their highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on November 8th. The Call of Duty franchise has been one of the bestselling games in video gaming history. This was demonstrated with ease with Call of Duty: Black Ops last year, which generated about $360 million for the company in the first day it was released; selling 7 million copies.

But these numbers, far from being benign, have come to the company as a double edged sword. Because EA seriously underestimated the number of new customers it would gain, their servers were unable to keep up with the demand as millions tried to login to play the game simultaneously. Message boards and blogs blew up with consumer outcry as users reported connection troubles. An EA spokesperson has confirmed that players on the PC and PlayStation should experience no more issues whilst playing online. Xbox 360 players might still have some difficulties, but EA is working hard to solve these. Details on the bugs and their solutions are accessible on the official Battlefield  3 website.

EA’s debut of Battlefield 3 has defied many expectations, selling a landmark number of copies for the company and bringing in a whopping $300 million in sales. But the victory might be short lived as Activision responds with its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The question  now is will Call of Duty meet its high expectations? While Call of Duty hasn’t previously needed  to compete with a title like Battlefield 3, which is a serious contender that might take away a large portion of its market share, the franchise boasts a fervent fan base. Even though Battlefield 3 has the spotlight now, its issues haven’t gotten it off on the right foot, and this might be the very reason millions flock back to the acclaimed Call of Duty which they know to be a great game that works.

We’ll fill you in on the final results next week after COD: MW 3 hits the market.

 

5 Comments »

  1. xxx November 2, 2011 at 2:21 am - Reply

    COD MW3 will be better than BF3

    • BF3 November 5, 2011 at 9:21 pm - Reply

      No. it won’t, every previous battlefield game has been better than every previous COD game, i can’t see the trend breaking tbh…..

      • row November 10, 2011 at 9:23 pm - Reply

        hecks no MW3 will be be better than BF3 i dont care wat other people say

  2. mr koolaid November 11, 2011 at 5:00 pm - Reply

    BF3 hands down

    I don’t care what little teenage CoD fanboys say, they should focus more on finishing Algebra homework and leave the big boy games to BF PC gamers

  3. Joe January 28, 2012 at 7:29 pm - Reply

    Well we now know which one is better 🙂 BF3

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