While EA has said that it doesn’t expect Battlefield 3 to beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in terms of sales, it will certainly be a close battle. EA CFO Eric Brown has confirmed that Battlefield 3 has received 1.25 million preorders so far. He also noted that these figures top Battlefield 3’s predecessor, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, by more than ten times.
In response to
Activision’s Call of Duty Elite service, Brown said that “The short answer is no" when it comes to a similar service
for Battlefield 3. However, Brown
didn’t rule it out completely for future installments in the franchise, as he
noted later that “We'll monitor and see
what the outcome is.”
Battlefield 3 will instead have a free service named Battlelog, where players can track their stats, chat with friends and form matches with them, and more. Battlelog will display friend activity updates in real-time, such as awards received and unlocks. Players can also comment on and share these updates, much like social networking sites such as Facebook. Unlike Call of Duty Elite, Battlelog won’t include future DLC, as potential add-ons will be sold separately.
Battlefield 3 is expected to launch October 25th, about two weeks prior to the release date of Modern Warfare 3.