Activision: BF3 is a Challenger Brand and EA Will Not Steal Our Market Share

There seems no end to this war of words between Activision and EA executives.

To catch you up to speed, here’s a chronological list of what happened so far:

June 16th: Speaking to industry gamers, EA CEO, John Riccitiello, Said that he wanted the Call of Duty franchise to “Rot from The Core”

August 17th: Activisoin Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg, Addressed that comment.

August 18th: EA hit back at Activtion stating that the Call of Duty series will die in 2-3 years because EA will be stealing 20%-30% market share a year.

August 19th: one the launched day of our site, we applauded Modern Warfare 3’s Robert Bowling comment after playing Battlefield 3.

Now, another chapter to this endless war. In an interview with GI.biz, Eric Hirshberg claims that “It’s not a new strategy for challenger brands to try to get themselves mentioned in the same breath as leader brands. Coke didn’t do the Coke challenge, Pepsi did the Pepsi challenge. It’s a tried and true strategy to try and get yourself mentioned as much as possible in the same breath as the leaders so people start thinking of you in that context.” 

His Pepsi-Coke analogy makes sense to some extent, but Battlefield 1 came out in 2002 as opposed to the original Call of Duty, which came out in 2003. However, I think Eric is refering to Battlefield as a challenger in the world of consoles compared to Call of Duty dominance in that market.

He went on to touch on the EA’s claim to steal Activision’s market share by saying “Well not from us.” He explained further “What about creating market share? I feel like [EA’s comments] comes from a place that assumes that there’s a finite number of gamers in the world. If we as an industry act like there’s a finite number of gamers in the world, and just beat each other up to get access to them, I think that will come true. On the other hand, if we act like we can constantly pull people into this passion, which is what has happened – the industry has grown exponentially – then I think that we can bake a bigger pie instead of fighting over a bigger slice of the existing one.”

MP1st’s message to these two publishing giants, why don’t you put together your finest multiplayer teams and play 4 rounds (defenders and attackers) of Rush on Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Demolition on Call of Duty Black Ops. If the score is still level, end the tournament with a match of Inferno on Counter Strike Source, a middle ground if you will. All joking aside, we hope both EA and Activision hit their projected sales’ targets, market share and whatnot, but most importantly make sure that their games are well supported in terms of patches post release.

On a lighter note, Activision makes its new employees play Call of Duty MP.

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Jon I
12 years ago

They are just talking tough while they can. They are comfortable right now still. When BF Bad Company 3 comes out head to head against Black Ops 2 it might be a different story!!

DarkKnight101
DarkKnight101
Reply to  Jon I
12 years ago

EA will never catch up to COD with Bad Company, if you think otherwise you are dreamin, but hey, that’s all you Dice fans do, is dream of toplling COD.

Kinda pathetic to be honest, just play your games and he happy and let others enjoy whatever games they like without the name calling

Jon I
Reply to  DarkKnight101
12 years ago

lol honestly that was hilarious darkknight101. nice job labelling people you know nothing about. i’m the last person you want to be calling a DICE fan. Just google my name with DICE next to it. – Jon Ireson

dakan45
dakan45
Reply to  DarkKnight101
12 years ago

ALL BF players do is TROLLING, seriously are you insecure kids unable to spend some time without googling EVERYTHING about cod and leaving hate comments?

On the other hand cod fans dont give a damn about bf so its prety damn stupid.

Also thats what ea is doing too, trolling.

Suprisingly activision and cod players are the most mature ones here.

DarthDiggler
DarthDiggler
Reply to  DarkKnight101
12 years ago

@darkknight101 — How many more years are you going to buy COD to finally realize you been playing the same game? COD came out using Quake III as the base source code, Black Ops still uses much of the same source code. They can call it the IW engine, but it’s nothing but a hack job of an out dated last generation Quake engine. Activision is a cash cow publisher and they could care little for the audience as long as they are paying. Look at what they did to guitar hero series. They annualize series and then pile expensive DLC on top of it. This time around that is not enough for the money hungry beasts which is why you see COD Elite. It seems that each COD comes with less maps on disc and more maps you pay for. I have never paid $15 for a map pack — I never will, that is highway robbery and I will not be buying MW3 just because Activision just keeps increasing the cost of ownership for the complete COD experience each year. I say BULLSHIT, learn to code with an engine made this century and create a compelling experience that couldn’t be replicated on last generation’s systems with less graphics. So far COD fails in that department, it’s a last gen experience with a next gen polish.

Battlefield Series always innovates. Bad Company 2 was an excellent game and it’s sad that COD Black Ops sold more. I was talking to some BlackOps fans this weekend at a wedding, they were remarking on some of the levels just being “sniper levels”. I mentioned in Battlefield you often have the option of taking out the building everyone likes to camp in. They had no idea that Battlefield had that level of realism. Mostly because they are knee deep in Activision marketing BS.

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  DarthDiggler
12 years ago

You sir, are a good man. Its the first mature comment in defence of Bf that has come out on this site. I hope it shuts up fools like Dakan45 and Zeroonyz who don’t even understand Bf and think they do. Well done sir!

dakan45
dakan45
Reply to  Jon I
12 years ago

bad company 3? omg kid.

Look there is an infinite number of gamers in the market, cod seems to be getting all of them or most of them.

Whatever scraps bf3 that is BF3 not bc3 will not change anything.

The winning brand here is cod by more than double the sales as a diffirence.

So in order ea to take the percentage they talk about they gotta sell 300% or more.

Good luck with that ea, you said the same shit about moh overtaking cod, AHAHAHAHA

m
m
12 years ago

This is a one-sided war. EA is all talk and no action.

Android is R2D2
Android is R2D2
12 years ago

At the end of this FPS supremacy CoD will end up selling millions and Battlefield 3 will do great in sales but will not over take CoD because of it’s diverse fanbase compared to battlefields mature hardcore audience.This fight between EA and Activision is just adding more fule to the

Android is R2D2
Android is R2D2
Reply to  Android is R2D2
12 years ago

Fire *

JVC
JVC
12 years ago

This is a battle for the long run. Obviously, BF3 will not over take MW3 in sales this year, but people are opening their eyes and BF3 will take a good chunk of the marketplace. It’ll just like when Guitar Hero went head to head with Rock Band, Guitar Hero won the first year, but after that, Rock Band blew them out the water because people started to notice how it was repeatedly the same crap, the same story will happen with MW3. I plan on buy both, but I know most of my time will be on BF3. BF3>MW3

Dirk
Dirk
12 years ago

I think competition is good for the military first person shooter genre. Of course that absolutely insane and stupid comment about “not taking our market share” shows that Activision can be just as idiotic as Electronic Arts in the war of the words. Whose market share is it going to take away from if even only a few percentage points including MW3? It will be interesting to see the real numbers and not talk after both games hit the market.

dakan45
dakan45
Reply to  Dirk
12 years ago

You want real numbers? mw2 has reached 22 million and black ops 25 million, YES THEY STILL SELL. Also cod4 and waw STILL sell.

Now bc2? 6 millions. PRRRRRFFFFFF (Fart sounds)

I fail to see how they will good percentage from cod when they gotta sell 300% in order to do so.

Also keep in mind cod is stronger than ever and keeps getting stronger.

Dirk
Dirk
Reply to  dakan45
12 years ago

All I said was BF3 will do well and will take market share from MW3. It will do this simply because it exists if for no other reason. If people like the game it will take more market share. I was talking about BF3 & MW3 not all the other COD/MW games you mentioned which I thought was obvious. I hope both games do well.

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  dakan45
12 years ago

One again dakan45, you really show your maturity. 😀

All any one you just flamed stated that BF3 will sell better than BC2 did, thus taking a percentage of the market share form COD. That is undeniable, as the hype and pre-orders show.

Yes, MW3 will sell better, that is also undeniable.

And its quite insulting that you should call BF players trolls and imature, when you have just showed yourself to be a massive hypocrite.

Stop stating that MW3 will be better because previous games have sold well. Sales don’t make a game. Everything must come to and end eventually, COD will too.

At the end of the day my friend, its a matter of opinion. I prefer BF for various reasons, You prefer COD for your own reasons. Same applies to Pepsi and coke, MCdonalds or Burgerking. I’m not saying we shouldn’t discuss and debate the games we believe to be better, just learn to do it in a mature manner. And in reply to our previous disscussion, you wouldn’t say destruction is underrated if you had put time into a Battlefield game. Vehicles are not OP except in those exceptional circumstances when you come accros a player who has truly mastered a vehicle. That takes time and effort, as i’m sure anyone on COD who has got to 10th Prestige legit will understand. Finally, your argument about BF players being ‘crap’ because they have to use teamwork is down right ridiculous. The game requires that, you cannot fight it. And also, have you ever heard the expression ‘everyone must do their bit’. This is what teamwork in BF means. Everyone must play well and work together to succeed.

DarthDiggler
DarthDiggler
Reply to  dakan45
12 years ago

@dakan45 With your level of intelligence probably reflecting the level of most COD users it comes as no surprise that COD sells as well as it does. But than again you would probably be entertained watching a loop of Michael Bay explosions just as long as it included that Splinter Cell flash bulb sound.

Seriously you are clearly out ranked here in terms of your debate prowess and any real analytical understanding of what you are talking about.

Do everyone a favor and STFU.

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  DarthDiggler
12 years ago

O darth digger how i love you! Look at the comments on the article about mw3 not copying BF3. Him and another fool called Zeroonyx are hilarious! 😀

DarthDiggler
DarthDiggler
12 years ago

Look any nitwit can tell you that COD is pretty much saturated. It has no place to go but down. Sure MW3 may top BO sales, but it won’t be by a huge figure. Meanwhile Battlefield has been doubling it’s console presence with nearly every iteration.

Black Ops (PS3/X360) – 23.43M – less than 7% growth
MW2 (PS3/X360) – 21.80M

BF: BC2 (PS3/X360) 5.41M – Audience Doubled and than some
BF: BC1 (PS3/X360) 2.50M

Battlefield Bad Company series did not get nearly the advertising campaign that COD received over the same amount of years. So considering EA is hitting with this game just before COD and will likely give it more advertising, you could very well see the audience double again (although some console peeps may opt for the PC version). Once the BF series starts hitting double digit Millions it too will have that COD status of being somewhat ubiquitous in the industry.

Either way anyone looking at the numbers can plainly see COD is nearing it’s peak if it has not done so already. Which explains why Activision is making the HUGE money grab this time around. They may actually have to do some programming for the next COD and not just rely on a texture refresh like they have the pass 4 games.

Now I know some of you will say what about MOH. Well MOH doesn’t have the Battlefield branding, so it’s not a very good comparison. Even MOH did 4.65M and that got pretty terrible reviews (mostly for being so COD like LOL).

You can feel free to disagree, but I think my opinion has been well thought out and I did bring some numbers to the table. So please save your “Battlefield sucks” comments for a less intelligent thread that is more fitting of your mental capacity. 🙂

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  DarthDiggler
12 years ago

I couln’t agree more bud. Some people need to take an english class on debating(cough,dakan45) and learn that its not sufficient to through out sales numbers say the other guy sucks. Sales don’t make a better game and i will safely say that come this november metacritic will show the better game. Dream all you like but i’ll bet my life on it, it will not be COD.

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  RandomBoner
12 years ago

*throw

DarthDiggler
DarthDiggler
Reply to  RandomBoner
12 years ago

Well Battlefield’s developers DICE have never been strong in the Single Player department. I will grant that COD with it’s very limited engine does produce a compelling single player experience (when the enemies are infinitely spawning). That being said, DICE is looking to up their Single Player game.

Just based on BC2 and COD BO I don’t see how anyone who has spent a good deal of time on both can say COD is the better game.

RandomBoner
RandomBoner
Reply to  DarthDiggler
12 years ago

O man i know exactly what you mean. I mean, i played MW2 and BO four about 150 hours combined. I decided to give BC2 a go and after 50 hours, i went back to BO. BO was this shallow experience. That is the only word to describe it. You had no choice, the teammates don’t help. I’m now up to 400 hours on BC2 and i’ve never looked back. Its an exceptional game and in my opinion, the best shooter on consoles today.

DarthDiggler
DarthDiggler
Reply to  RandomBoner
12 years ago

LOL @ RandomBoner 🙂

I agree and with BF3 looking to introduce some tight urban gameplay into the mix, Battlefield 3 will have the best of both worlds.

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