PS3 News: EA Believes BF3 Stole Market Share Away From CoD - PS3 News

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EA Believes BF3 Stole Market Share Away From CoD

EA never expected Battlefield 3 to outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. No, they had more realistic goals.

The BF3 publisher went on record many times saying they only wanted to steal some market share away from Activision's reigning FPS king. And now that both shooters have been available for over a month, EA boss Peter Moore believes EA reached their goal. Here's what he told IndustryGamers:

"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 [copies of Battlefield 3] 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.

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. I don't think there's any doubt about that, unless everything BF3 sells is just incremental."

BF3 has no hope of outselling MW3 but in the long run, if EA did indeed steal a few fans away from CoD, that's a victory in their eyes. At the very least, it's clear that both games in question are wildly successful, and the FPS genre continues to be one of the most popular categories in the industry.

Just don't forget that other games with names like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations have sold well, too.

Related Game(s): Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Tags: battlefield 3, bf3, modern warfare 3, mw3, cod, dice, ea

12/9/2011 12:25:18 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (29 posts)

D1g1tal5torm
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 12:48:22 PM
Reply

Yeah right - without cod numbers they know nothing.

Just trying to get themselves publicity - pure and simple.

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aaronisbla
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 2:06:40 PM

they sold around 6 something million copies of BF3 already. You really dont think that at least a quarter of those sales would have went towards MW3 had BF3 not been around?
Last edited by aaronisbla on 12/9/2011 2:10:50 PM

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Underdog15
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 3:24:37 PM

Even if all 6 million of those people bought both titles, they still gained market share. Since it's extremely unlikely all 6 million bought both titles, it's a fairly safe bet to assume they've either taken share from CoD, gained more fans to the FPS genre, or both as they stated.

Even then, he says he'll wait until the end of the fiscal year to fully evaluate.

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Clamedeus
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 3:48:53 PM

I'm going to be getting BF3 soon. (Hopefully) So I definitely can't wait to play it. My friends I know in real life play it so I can't wait to hop on and do some damage.

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jaybiv
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 4:45:49 PM

The talk about marketshare in this context is a little fuzzy. Buying a video game is not a mutually exclusive activity. With most other industries like cars cellphones and such, marketshare is much more differentiated. BF3 "gaining marketshare" may not have been at the expense of COD. From what I've seen, COD blew them out of the water. So they may have won the battle, but they still lost the war.

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NiteKrawler
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 5:49:52 PM

@jaybiv: And you have missed Moore's point entirely.

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Neo_Aeon666
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 9:01:54 PM

Well it prolly IS a marketing move lol. But still I get alot of COD returns here (trade-ins) from people saying: Meh same old nothing new going to keep BF3 instead and take the 40$ we give in credit for it.

Alot of people seem to have bought both and test em out.

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aaronisbla
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 9:26:19 PM

@jaybiv, yeah, i think you totally missed the point. Clearly, 6 million of the purchases arent just from new fps gamers. and if it is, thats pretty impressive as well.

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D1g1tal5torm
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 6:38:37 AM

also depends on how you quantify market share - in this context it's intentionally ambiguous

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jaybiv
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 9:24:54 AM

I haven't missed the point. I don't believe this game is capable of growing the market by 5 million people. Even if they did, COD brought 2-3 times more new gamers so EA's gains are negated. BF3 wasn't breaking all-time sales records. Congrats to them for making some in-roads, but they are nowhere close to taking the crown.

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manofchao5
Sunday, December 11, 2011 @ 11:47:21 AM

I just want to see cod burn and die
Battlefield isn't going to last forever and it's because a game should be put on hold for awhile or just stopped and something else started anew simply because as they keep pumping out the same crap, nothing feels that great anymore, ie cod storyline

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DjEezzy
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 12:49:23 PM
Reply

Yeah, case in point... my cousin was a huge cod fan on the xbox unfortunately. But he got battlefield 3 and totally passed on mw3 this year. I actually went to him because he was one of the only ones i knew that would have both and i wanted to see what he liked better. When he told me he passed on mw3 i was really surprised and pleased that bf3 had that good of an impact on him. It really is a great game and the back to karkand expansion really is a great addition. Those maps are pretty damn epic and i can only imagine what else they'll be coming out with in the future. Great job Dice!!!

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Excelsior1
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 1:17:06 PM
Reply

Maybe some gamers opted to get BOTH games becuase BF3 sure didn't seem to hurt MW3's sales. MW3 is the fastest selling videogame of all time crushing all previous records. It sold neatly 7 million copies in a single day and went on to sale through 12.3 million copies in a single week.

Great to see a Sony exclusive sell well.

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aaronisbla
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 2:27:50 PM

you realize that this sony exclusive sold pretty damn well on pc and 360 right?

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Excelsior1
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 3:10:39 PM

I was talking about UC3 which was mentioned at the end of the article. I should have been more specific.

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aaronisbla
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 9:27:26 PM

ah i see

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Alienange
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 3:19:56 PM
Reply

If I were Peter, I'd be happier about adding 5 million gamers than pretending to be stealing business away from the industry leader. Really, if they truly are cutting into CoD, wouldn't that mean that it's CoD that has added 5 million gamers because they're numbers certainly didn't go down. But no, Peter's all thrilled with his ability to get haters to switch to his borked fps. What a winner.

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Underdog15
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 3:25:58 PM

No matter how you look at it, they've gained a sizable market share.

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Alienange
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 6:08:00 PM

Is that so Mr Expert? Peter here is acting like they started from zero. You don't think the 6 million owners of BFBC2 might have something to do with the purchase of 6 million units of BF3?

I won't deny the numbers for BF3 are greater than their previous efforts, but this "cutting into CoD share" is marginal at best. I'd even dare say irrelevant. But whatever, there's plenty of fanboys interested in the juice DICE hands out.

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mindmurderer69
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 6:25:08 PM

I've never owned any "bad company series" rented them to see what they were like never owned. They were not true "Battlefield" games. But yes i bought BF3, and I'm sure there are many of the six mil that have done the same thing. and no i do not own MW3. dont buy call of duty series any more. they to me have lost their way, and its all of the same old. thats what happens when you push out new title after new title. and to me trying to be all "mr. expert" seems to me you could be the fanboy, but thats my opinion.

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Clamedeus
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 7:56:13 PM

@mindmurderer69

That's why I'm getting BF3, I have MW3 but regretted my purchase of it, I had more fun in BC2 then in MW3.

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aaronisbla
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 9:33:47 PM

i bet you still have yet to try this game alienange. dude, ur worse than console fanboys

I ask you, what makes the game 'borked' in your eyes? I advise you to look up the word 'borked' before you make yourself sound foolish

Last edited by aaronisbla on 12/9/2011 9:35:45 PM

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Underdog15
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 5:33:43 PM

@Alienage
You still haven't detracted from my point. They have sold more than their past games. Therefore, they have gained market share. That doesn't necessarily mean they've STOLEN market share (which I didn't suggest, hence me saying "either way"), but it is without argument that they have gained market share.

It doesn't take a "Mr. Expert" to understand that. It just takes not being a dumbass.

Perhaps you should stop assuming I'm out to get you. I'll agree with you if I agree, and I'll disagree if I don't. I've done both with you plenty of times in the past. Stop taking it so personally all the time.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/10/2011 5:36:45 PM

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Undertaker575
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 4:21:17 PM
Reply

well imo bf3 won me over from cod... but then again bfbc2 did that for me too....

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Lawless SXE
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 7:11:33 PM
Reply

I think this guy is skewed. As others have already stated, MW3 is tracking well against the sales of BlOps. And what had MoH sold in the same amount of time last year? 3-4 million, wasn't it? Factor in the increase in the number of consoles in homes over the past year (more than likely in excess of five million) and I don't think that their market share could have increased enough for them to be crowing about it.

Unless they're implying that CoD is the ONLY FPS game to get any sales at all in any given year. I think they're delusional.

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Nas Is Like
Friday, December 09, 2011 @ 9:19:31 PM
Reply

I'll just say this: those who wanted to purchase Modern Warfare 3 in the first place, have either done it or pirated it. It's not like EA literally converted lots of people away from Call of Duty.

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AshT
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 1:56:05 AM
Reply

guess i can get BF3 now

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___________
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 2:38:46 AM
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sure it did EA sure it did!

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ulsterscot
Saturday, December 10, 2011 @ 8:41:54 AM
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Got really annoyed with the input lag in the PS3 version that they didn't fix in the patch - ended up buying the xbox version as well - zero lag there. Hate it when developers lie and say the PS3 is the lead platform then don't deliver.

On the plus side I can now switch between MW3 on my PS3 and BF3 on my Xbox with out have to leave the couch !!!

As for taking market share away from MW3 - everyone I know who bought BF3 also bought MW3 - so im somewhat sceptical

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