Because Activision/Infinity Ward is targeting Modern Warfare 3 more towards the console users, and EA/Dice focusing Battlefield 3 directly at the PC gamers first, the presale war between the two, highly anticipated titles has been largely decided, with Modern Warfare 3 winning the day.
But that doesn’t mean Battlefield’s makers, Dice, aren’t above stealing thunder attempts when Modern Warfare 3 content hits the streets. Earlier, the Modern Warfare 3 online play trailer hit, and, not to be outdone, Battlefield 3, too, has a new trailer. The latest one highlights some of the different weapons players can come across during the game.
Much like MW3’s latest, the new BF3 trailer is pretty ballsy as well:
Yeah, I’m sold.
As indicated earlier, both games target different gamers, with Modern Warfare 3 concentrating on the XBox 360/PlayStation 3 crowd. Any PC gamers who buy it are welcome, too, but Activision makes its hay with the console crowd, and there’s nothing wrong with that. To many, gaming is gaming, no matter what platform is used.
Meanwhile, Battlefield 3 has the PC gamer directly in its sites, and while that makes for superior-looking and controlling games, the reach isn’t nearly as expansive. That being said, BF3 will indeed be available for consoles, but if Dice had their way, the consoles wouldn’t even be a consideration. To them, the best way to enjoy the potential of Battlefield 3 is to play it on a souped up PC. A quote from Battlefield 3 Executive Producer Patrick Bach reveals as much:
PCs are way more powerful than the consoles today and there are actually almost zero games out there that actually use the benefits of this. So for our target of what we want to hit, we are now using the more powerful platform to try and prove what we see gaming being in the future rather than using the lowest common denominator, instead of developing it for the consoles and then just adding higher resolution textures and anti-aliasing for the PC version… we start with the highest-end technology that we can come up with and then scale it back to the consoles.
The following image, courtesy of an awesome Yahtzee Crowshaw review, may help portray the issue a little better:
Of course, by making console players feel, oh, less than desirable, you could alienate a large portion of your potential customer base; although, it should be noted Battlefield 3 has presold over 700,000 copies between the XBox and the PlayStation.
Clearly, these gamers weren’t too offended by Dice’s preference for the PC gaming environment.
As a decided Battlefield fan–no, not a Modern Warfare hater, either–here’s another reason to buy this game: the 12 minute “Fault Line” trailer.
If, after watching that, you aren’t interested in at least giving Battlefield 3 a spin, perhaps you should rethink that whole “gamer” title. It’s just too bad these games are coming out at the same time. Not enough time in the day, it seems.