OXMUK

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at number one on UK sales charts since release and Battlefield 3 hovering at ninth, it's tempting to assume 2011's great shooter clash has been resolved in Activision's favour. Don't speak too soon, says EA's Peter Moore.

"I'm not sure that we didn't steal any share," the company COO told Industry Gamers in an interview conducted in November. "To your point, it's early days and we're only a month in - we feel very good about it."

Moore reckons EA's not the only one feeling good about it. "Two entities have benefited from Call of Duty and Battlefield being on the market: gamers and the industry (retailers and people who rely on the ability to sell big blockbuster games).

"Together we've grown the genre enormously. 10 million sold in and 5 million sold through doesn't come out of nowhere - if we haven't gained share, that means in the first week we've added 5 million new FPS gamers."

(Industry Gamers points out that Battlefield 3 has since sold through an additional three million.)

"I think when the dust fully settles, maybe when we're looking at this at the end of our fiscal year (March 31, 2012) we'll do an analysis and I think we will have taken share," he went on. "I don't think there's any doubt about that, unless everything BF3 sells is just incremental."

"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."

http://www.oxm.co.uk/36915/ea-battlefield-3-has-taken-market-share-from-modern-warfare-3/

Yeah right,
Keep telling yourself that.

taken marketshare? not really nothing to be noticable what they need to realise is they have the same marketshare and quite alot of people will buy both.

"Together we've grown the genre enormously. 10 million sold in and 5 million sold through doesn't come out of nowhere - if we haven't gained share, that means in the first week we've added 5 million new FPS gamers."


Ugh, shut up EA. There is such thing as buying BOTH games you know. Also, are they saying their last game sold nothing? Seen as they've sold 5 million copies and that's 5 million new FPS players ...

meh...I hardly play either MW3 or BF3 anymore.... too busy playing U3 :)

you guys are all missing the point 12 million copies sold is massive and profitible you cant question that

Bought:

COD 2, 3, MW, WaW, MW2, BO

Skipped MW3 in favour of BF3, so yeah they've taken at least 0.00000000000000001% marketshare :P

To me, this should be looked at in fully clarity.

Did the Xbox really harm the PS2? no. But it created marketshare and set up the 360.

BF has been out of the front runner position since BF2 a LONG time ago. BF3 was their attempt to get back to that point. It has been widely successful and created a solid base to build on.

Additionally, there are some differences that just exist in the games themselves, for better or worse depending on the gamers preference. Maps size is probably the biggest. Couple people I know enjoy what I like to call "war in a closet" that is CoD. Why? well, you're always in the action. However, others, like me, enjoy the better strategy and teamwork in a larger battlefield given by BF series. Sure it might seem slower, but utilizing team work and spawning on your teammates eliminates this issue greatly.

Point is, these differences may never allow BF to really by pass CoD again. The larger FPS market may simply not want the BF style of play over CoD.

And I bet you that 10 million/ 5 million is shipped.