A new report from Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia notes that preorders for the upcoming
Battlefield 3 have now surpassed 1.5 million in total.
This compares to earlier this month, when Electronic Arts revealed that
the game had seen 1.25 million pre-orders altogether, already way ahead of its predecessor title
Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
Bhatia suggested that
Battlefield 3 will indeed eventually sell through more copies than
Bad Company 2, which has seen 9.5 million units sold to date.
"Note that
BF3 will include a map pack if the game is pre-ordered," said Bhatia. "This $15 to $20 value should be a big incentive for customers to pre-order
BF3."
He also noted that
Battlefield 3's two-week head-start over competitor
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 should lead to a huge launch for the title, although "a natural slowdown in sales" will then be noticed once
Modern Warfare 3 launches.
Overall, the combined marketing costs for
Battlefield 3 and
Modern Warfare 3 combined may surpass $100 million by the end of this year, suggested Bhatia.
Electronic Arts revealed earlier this week that the multiplayer beta for
Battlefield 3 will be open to all gamers from September 29, 2011.
