Battlefield 3 vs Modern Warfare 3 (PC, PS3, XBOX)

PC
PS3
XBOX

So, we've been carefully looking throughout the web and have been reading a lot of really interesting articles posted on the war between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. There have a been a lot of accusations and a lot of harsh words spoken out. Its been a really interesting sort of thing to watch. Its almost as though sites drop those sort of articles out there because they've had a rather rough day at the office and need a good laugh and watching the world lash out at each other gives them great pleasure, so I guess they're being done a favor.

I guess, we would be sticking our necks on the chopping block as well but, we figured we'd take a crack at it as well. Now, granted, Battlefield 3 has been the only game released thus far and we're still waiting another seven days-- HOLY CRAP ITS THE RING-- so its really quite impossible to forsee the future. The only one that really knows right now is Activision.

There's no doubt that Activision have been carefully watching the sales numbers for Battlefield 3 and there very own were at the midnight launch picking up a copy of Battlefield 3 and popping it into the PC and 360 to see where the game stands in comparison to theirs. My guess is that Activision have a huge smile on their face.

Now, while Battlefield 3 hasn't done bad by any means as its sold somewhere between 3.5 and 5 million units, the stats seem to be confused as different sources post different numbers, that's going to be rather small in comparison to what Modern Warfare 3 is going to sell and that's the opinion of myself whom has been pushing for Battlefield 3 as this time. But, its not going to work out that way.

I base my opinion on a lot but I'll write a few reasons why, or this could go on all day but, first and foremost is that most gamers don't have a beast of a computer to run a game like Battlefield 3 on. So, for PC gamers, that's a definite plus right there and will give them a great experience, but that market is still really small in comparison. There are a lot more console gamers out there and the issue is, Activision didn't design Call of Duty to run on a PC first and then port to a game console. Activision developed Modern Warfare 3 with the gaming console in mind. This means that Modern Warfare will run really well on consoles and run even better on the PC. Battlefield 3 wasn't designed that way. Battlefield was built to show off the Frostbite 2 engine and try to move hardware developers onto new consoles and talk up the PC's. I think this was an extremely bad move as EA had stated from the beginning. This game is a PC game and the console versions just won't run well. You can call it a marketing technique if you want as a way to talk up the engine and make it sound impressive and as though it pushing the console hardware but, at the end of the day, whether that was really his intention or not, he was absolutely right.

What I mean by that actually carries on into my second point. Now, I've not a very big Battlefield fan either. I would normally have played Battlefield pretty much by force as a buddy would buy it and send it to me. But, as I played the Beta, granted its a beta with a lot of bugs and such, it really left a bitter taste in my mouth and led me from I'm not going to buy it, to I don't care. A lot of that spawns from the fact that DICE spent so much time on the PC version, that again is a very small market, that the console versions were neglected and the beta really shut a lot of gamers down and turned them away.

Finally, Call of Duty is Call of Duty. Whether the game is a complete piece of junk and a total waste of money, gamers are buying the name. That's what they're sold on. Its that Modern Warfare was developed so well and hooked so many in, that all that hype had spread and many had bought into that and still buy into it. I knew what Call of Duty was long before I heard the word Battlefield uttered.

Call of Duty truly is a force to be reckoned with. It has a lot of power and a lot of force behind it and ought not to be dismantled for quite some time. No matter how badly Activision might treat their consumers, they know they've grown crack fields that will sell crack. Activision has some of the most well established franchises in the gaming industry thanks mostly in part to Neversoft, Blizzard and the house that Infinity Ward built. When you put older Guitar Hero games, Tony Hawk games, Starcraft and Warcraft games out on the shelves along with Call of Duty, you control the world. Why do you think Bobby Kotick is still around? He can mouth and say what we wants, but Activision carries a ridiculous amount a software.

As much as I'd like to say it isn't so, I'm giving this round to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Battlefield presents a good challenge, but it was totally marketed wrong and the developers made a lot of blunders in delivering content. Keep in mind, that this is in comparison to Modern Warfare. 3.5 to 5 million units in a single week is staggering. Gears of War 3 is a console exclusive that carried just as many. Battlefield got as many off a multiplatform game. That's a scary though!