Things sure are heating up in the military FPS space this year, with Battlefield 3 going head to head with Modern Warfare 3 – just in time for Christmas. The smart money is on both games being great, but that won’t stop fan boys from going at it, and neither will it stop EA’s smack talk barrage.
In the latest development in the corporate flame war, EA’s John Riccitiello has described to IndustryGamers the difference in core audience between Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.
“A lot of people bought Modern Warfare more for the coffee table and didn’t play it for two months. There’s sort of that mass audience… they’re going to win there. The question is, ‘So, if the gamer buys our game and the mass audience buys their game, where do the two meet?’ And all I want to do, if you will, is to have them rot from the core,” said Riccitiello.
In other words, EA is hoping to win the hearts and minds of core gamers with Battlefield 3. The assumption here is that core gamers ultimately define the broader market, and winning them over will lead to the Battlefield franchise dominating the mainstream in years to come.
Riccitiello also had a lot to say about Activision’s Call of Duty Elite service, specifically criticising Activision’s announcement strategy. Activision first revealed that it would be a paid service, and only then tried to point out the value it would offer. Unfortunately for Activision, the announcement of a paid service caused such a commotion that a follow up announcement that 90% of CoD Elite’s features would be free fell of deaf ears.
Riccitiello’s criticism seems a bit a hypocritical, seeing as just last week the announcement of exclusive Battlefield 3 pre-order content caused gamers to boycott the title. EA has since recovered by stating that the extra content would be available for free to everyone before the end of the year. It’s unclear whether this was a reactionary move to the negative community outcry, or merely an initial marketing miscommunication on the part of EA.
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