Call of Duty is a largely popular gaming series by Activision and has built up a large fan base over the series. Battlefield has had a good sized amount of fans and the upcoming Battlefield 3 shows a step up in quality which has many people wanting to try out their game. The question is will it’s upcoming Battlefield 3 be able to compete with Modern Warfare 3 or will it even affect it’s popularity at all?
Call of Duty first started becoming really successful in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The multiplayer of this game used such an addicting enjoyable formula that got many fans hooked on the series. They redefined the console FPS genre and many fans now refuse to change which gives them a huge advantage. Personally I enjoy the fast paced closer combat based first person shooting of Call of Duty to the slower more tactical based Battlefield series. MW2 was known as the faster paced FPS out of modern warfare, World at War and Black ops and MW3 has been designed as an improved version of this which will appeal to the people who want faster combat or lower attentions spans. The Battlefield formula for gameplay is based more on teamwork and tactical strategy which appeals to a lot of competitive players who have people ready to play with and a means to communicate but for just a public game with random people the teamwork may not work out as well as you want. The game preference will come down to whether you prefer a slower strategy tactical game or a fast paced shooter based more on gun skill and less on strategy.
A common argument supporting Battlefield 3 is that it will have amazing graphics. I do not doubt that this will be true but the quality of gameplay is a much more important aspect and I wouldn’t mind playing a game with inferior graphics for superior and more enjoyable gameplay. It is also believed that the Call of Duty series has gotten stale for some. The game has not changed that much from Call of Duty 4 to Black ops now. Many people want something new and are willing to try battlefield in hope that this will provide them with what they are looking for. Despite all these arguments for and against they are only argued by the vocal minority and the large majority are known to stick with what they know and love which is why even though it may seem that there might be an even split between people saying what they prefer the silent majority will ignore what they say and stick with what they are familiar with.
Battlefield have done whatever they can to get an early advantage over MW3 before it has been released. Battlefield 3 was released conveniently about a week before Modern Warfare 3’s release date which is a great tactical move and may convert a few impatient people who only buy one game at a time to their cause. Battlefield 3 also made the great move of having a public beta for the game right around when most people were starting to get bored of the other Call of Duty games. The beta gave a great insight into the game for a lot of people who haven’t experienced the Battlefield style of play. The downside to this though was that people who were unfamiliar with betas quickly got frustrated with the bugs in the game such as falling under the map and this may have turned them off the game. These advantages of a being released early and giving everyone a free trial of the game will definitely give Battlefield an edge but will it be enough. I believe that they will attract more sales as a result but less true fans to the series.
Despite all these efforts Battlefield will have a very difficult time taking Call of Duty’s spot as the top FPS. The loyal fan base is too large and loyal and will require a lot more than one new game to take it down even if it is of a higher quality. Most people will be unwilling to change and it will take years of chipping away at the fan base to eventually make the mighty statue that is Call of Duty to crumble.