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EA to set Call of Duty in Battlefield 3's sights

Electronic Arts' CEO announces an epic marketing campaign to help Battlefield 3 take down the next CoD title. But is this asking too much?

At the Ad Age Digital Conference held in New York overnight, Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello announced just how hard the company will be pushing the DICE developed Battlefield 3. And that is... very damn hard.

BF3 is going to get a marketing budget of about $100 million when it launches in November. Given that's the same time that the next Call of Duty will be out, with a no doubt similar budget. "This November, we're launching Battlefield 3. It's going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the number one game in the game industry," he said in his Ad Age keynote. "A game that last year did $400 million dollars in revenue on day one. [Battlefield 3] is designed to take that game down."

It's great to see just how passionate EA is about pushing Battlefield 3, but we're also a little concerned about the company setting its aim so high.

Call of Duty, traditionally, is aimed at a console audience, and much of the game's evolution over the last few iterations has been in that direction. And it's a fair move, too, as that is doubtless where the money is. Battlefield 3, however, is being touted by DICE is primarily a PC game.

So how is EA expecting to go up against CoD, and still win? As good as we're expecting BF3 to be, surely it simply cannot have the broad appeal of something like Black Ops. And do PC gamers even want it to?

We're not sure how EA and DICE is going to solve this conundrum, of developing a game that's as rich and PC-centric as has been promised, while still delivering an accessible game that can be easily mastered and played by a wide audience. But we're sure interested in how it turns out.

Do you think EA can juggle the challenge?

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14 Comments

codecreeper Apr 7, 2011 12:07 PM	Depends on the time of release? Remembering that COD will probably be outdated by then. But i would not mind a Free copy to evaluate before i pay for it. November is still a long way off so the specs and game may change too.
Ekythump Apr 7, 2011 12:21 PM	I think that if CoD sticks to the same format as the last two games then BF3 will blow it away. I'm starting ti get tired of the CoD system and all the clones out there.
Hawkeye Apr 7, 2011 12:33 PM	I've no doubt it'll be the better game (fingers crossed), but that doesn't necessarily translate into game sales.
nesquick Apr 7, 2011 1:40 PM	After so many key people split from Infinity ward I doubt The COD games will ever match what they used to be like, DICE should have this one in the bag already IMO.
Bundy 2.0 Apr 7, 2011 1:50 PM	There was a really in depth talk about this on Gametrailers (invisible walls) about a month ago. With Activision not having anything significant to show yet and it being an 'Infinity Ward' year with all the drama they had last year it really is a HUGE chance for EA to take a chunk of the market share and EA obviously see this as well. Add to that that there are rumors Activision has had trouble staffing IW in time and they are having 3rd party dev help to make their title ready for November release. Ironically it's almost the same thing as whats happening with EA's NBA live series at the moment only in reverse. This year 2K stands to take big ground off of EA because EA isn't going to have a release this year thanks to NBA Elite being a bomb. Anyway more to the point both games will sell well at launch but I think EA will take some ground off of Activision in this market BF3 is the game everyone is talking about right now especially after their very successful trailers which went down well at GDC this year. Now initial sales aside IF Activision bombs CoD, BF3 will have much better sell through which is huge because that will make it the multiplayer FPS everyone plays through 2012 until the next Christmas FPS and that can be a game changer that impacts on next years sales as well. Its going to be very interesting.
jdog Apr 7, 2011 1:55 PM	as long as they take down COD but keep the PC centric as they say they are then that would be great! now to wait...
philo-sofa Apr 7, 2011 3:07 PM	I'm not someone who simply believes what he wants to be true, however I do believe this to be true - simplicity can be overdone and complexity can be appealing. COD 7 pushed the basic gameplay of the series as far as it can go (or through as many semi cookie cutter iterations as it's likely to sell through), and from what I've seen play of COD 7 has dropped a lot, and with it I assume purchases? BF3 if done exactly right does have the chance to engage people and become a hit in the same way as the comprehensible and never dull complexity simple Halo series has. Plus BF3 has Terminator music.
GhostFaceKilla Apr 7, 2011 3:22 PM	I have always bought COD games (on PC) for the SP campiagn (though the original COD was also a firm favourite with the local LAN group I was part of back in the day, and I did play a bit of COD4). And apart from COD BLOPS the SP campaign has always been pretty good. I have enjoyed all the SP campaigns up till BLOPS (terrible SP campaign) though WAW still wasnt on par with Infinity Ward offerings. I have always bought Battlefield games for the MP (again though having the SP bot mode in BF1942, BFV, BF2 and BF2142 has always been lots of fun as well). My observations are that when COD and Battlefield were pretty much exclusivley PC, the quality of the games was there - and many others got one for the SP and the other for dedicated MP. Both franchises had their strengths. Now with cross platform gaming a reality we are seeing the quality of COD fall off, and the Battlefield franchise has also not been immune to consolitus with it Bad Company off shoot. By competing directly with COD is Battlefield going to be the same Battlefield that we all love? What sacrifices and concessions are going to be made? I am concerned that Battlefield is turning slowly into a SP game as well. That was never the fpcus before and I cant help but feel that that is because it is the MP that is going to suffer as a result. I am concerned - and we know precious little at the moment as to just what form that MP is going to take in Battlefield 3. Will it be MORE like COD? Considering that 2/3 of the gaming market are on consoles and that EA are saying that they want to dominate over COD then it is the console gamers tat are going to have to be wooed because us PC gamers are already for it. The trouble is, given the console demographic and what they are buying now what concessions are going to be made to gameplay. I am excited about BF3 and looking very much forward to it. I sincerely think that DICE want to give it 100%. Trouble is that DICE arent neccessarily calling the shots any more. And I cant help but think that a 100 million dollar advertsing budget would be better spent on ensuring an absolute kick ass game. I firmly believe that you build a kick ass game then it will, other things being equal, sell it self. Many of us are getting very concerned now about over hyping and over advertsing a game.
zigarot Apr 7, 2011 4:23 PM	BF2 multiplayer is still great. It didn't have a singleplayer "campaign", and it was the focus of many a lan night with my good friends. All the news i hear sort of deflates me a little. Epic singleplayer campaign? to me that means less people working on multiplayer. More Advertising? to me that means less development. Direct Competing with CoD? to me that means console focus. Honestly, this sounds similar to BF:BC, with more vehicles... That's getting in the right direction... away from CoD, but i think personally, there should be separate console and PC versions, similar to BF2 and BF2:MW. That way the focus on PC is more acute. To me, all i need is a BF2 with new weapons, maps, a few new innovations, and some shiny graphics... But maybe that's just me. Zig
Bundy 2.0 Apr 7, 2011 5:48 PM	"All the news i hear sort of deflates me a little. Epic singleplayer campaign? to me that means less people working on multiplayer. More Advertising? to me that means less development" - Zigarot That isn't necessarily true there can be a few reasons for this. Larger budget and larger team is one of them and the other is a Updated engine with a better toolset based off of their last engine. Basically they are more adept at what they are doing you will be surprised at how much this counts for in terms of amount of content they can put out. Thirdly the game wont run on XP or support direct x9 so they don't need to waist their time with legacy API
SlurmsMackenzie Apr 7, 2011 7:34 PM	BF3 will win sales on pc hands down imo. However, on consoles it will be interesting. I hope they do win. I used to love Call of Duty but it's lost its class and has become a cash whore.
N3M3SiS Apr 7, 2011 10:37 PM	Fuck consoles. Fuck the cash cow of CoD and praise all of your atomic gods that a true PC release of Battlefield is coming once again to the almighty PC. Rejoice and tell your friends. Tell them judgement day is nigh.
Dazerath Apr 8, 2011 5:33 AM	I'm sure COD will win, all they need is to package it with night visi... oh maybe a remote contr... Ok I guess those were done already :P I am hoping for a nice new polished BF, I was playing my console alot for a while but my PC has won me back after my last build. Nothing better than a custom build! Rejoicing and telling my friends "judgement day is nigh!"
V1RUS Apr 8, 2011 10:38 AM	the fact that the had to package it with a remote control car and night vision proves that there just a bunch of cash whores now, IMO i to belive bf3 will wipe the floor with them and make all the cod players realise that you need skill to play a fps and teamwork none of this run around spraying anything that moves. also rejoicing and tell my friends "judgement day is nigh!

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Issue: 137 | June, 2012

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