Battlefield 3 taking market share from MW3 - Moore

Before Battlefield 3 launched, Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore said the DICE-developed first-person shooter didn't have to outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to be considered a success. It just had to eat into the game's market share.

Now that both games have been out for a month, Moore believes that particular mission has been accomplished. Speaking with Industry Gamers, Moore said there was little doubt that Battlefield 3 had cut into Call of Duty's hold on the first-person shooter market.

"Two entities have benefited from Call of Duty and Battlefield being on the market: gamers and the industry (retailers and people who rely on the ability to sell big blockbuster games)," Moore said. "Together we've grown the genre enormously. Ten million [copies of Battlefield 3] sold in and 5 million sold through doesn't come out of nowhere--if we haven't gained share, that means in the first week we've added 5 million new FPS gamers.

"I think when the dust fully settles, maybe when we're looking at this at the end of our fiscal year (March 31, 2012), we'll do an analysis and I think we will have taken share. I don't think there's any doubt about that, unless everything BF3 sells is just incremental."

While it might take some of Call of Duty's market share, Battlefield 3 is unlikely to outsell its largest competitor. While EA's shooter sold 5 million copies in its first week on sale, Activision's effort set an all-time record, with 6.5 million units sold in its first 24 hours on shelves. Moore's original stated goal was to knock Modern Warfare 3 down from a 90 percent market share of the genre to 70 percent.

For more on the first-person shooter face-off, check out GameSpot's reviews of Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.