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Only around 50 per cent of Medal of Honor players played Battlefield 3, EA has revealed, with the firm putting the gap down to brand loyalty and the Medal of Honor community enjoying “more authentic shooters”.
“We are very careful that Battlefield and Medal of Honor stay differentiated,” EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said in the latest issue of Game Informer.
“While there is an inefficiency to having two different brands coming out alternating like that, there is some upside. You don’t have the annualized, sequel fatigue. With Medal of Honor we tried to embrace that the game is ‘real’. The multiplayer is different than Battlefield. We’re trying to use a sequencing strategy to keep it as fresh and different as possible.
Despite both titles being modern warfare-based first-person shooters – and both games’ multiplayer components being developed by DICE – Gibeau claims that “the Medal of Honor customer is different than the Battlefield customer”.
“We can see what users play,” he continued. “Only about 50 per cent of players from the last Medal of Honor played Battlefield 3. When we talked to them, they said they liked the brand, more authentic shooters, and the story. So we are reaching a slightly different audience. The trick is figuring out how to grow both of them together.”
Medal of Honor launched in October 2010. EA reported that the game had sold 5 million copies within the first two months of release.
Battlefield 3, meanwhile, shipped one year later and significantly outsold MoH, selling 8 million copies within its first month on sale. EA expects the game to hit 18 million copies sold by the end of the fiscal year.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter launches in October 2012.
