Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Naughty Or Nice EA event in NY. I knew what was in store for me but I didn’t realize that what I was going to see would more than live up to my expectations. I’ve been a fan of Electronic Arts since the Mail Order Monster days. They’ve been up and down over the years in my books. After seeing their new offerings I can honestly say that EA is living up to their name once again.
When I first walked into the Naughty lounge I looked to my left and nearly lost it. I saw Battlefield Bad Company 2 in all it’s full glory. The moment I laid eyes on this game, nothing else mattered. Not Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 or Dante’s Inferno. I was dumb struck. Once EA PR sat me down and I got my hands on a controller, I wasn’t getting up unless they asked me too.
Two things happened in the next 35min. First, all the excitement I had for Modern Warfare 2 just vanished. All of the mystery surrounding BFBC2 was gone. DICE had taken me further than Infinity Ward. They had nothing to hide and wasn’t forcing me to wait until the game was released to get a taste.
The second thing that happened was surreal. It was almost as if I was playing a next generation game. Remember when you saw your first 360 or PS3 game? Yeah, that’s the feeling I’m talking about. They could have easily told me it was on PS4 or X3 and I would have accepted it. Everything you’ve seen in the trailers is gameplay quality. There’s no smoke and mirrors, no loss of parity between cut scenes and gameplay and no bullshit. DICE is going to own 2010 with this game and sadly that’s all I can say about it until embargo breaks. Enjoy MW2, we all will, but make sure you get yourself a copy of BFBC2 next March so your face can melt into oblivion.
My next stop was Left 4 Dead 2. It was the same build I played at E3 but I played it again anyways. It’s definitely a full fledged sequel and you’ll be getting your money’s worth with this one. As long as Valve keeps their promise to continue to support L4D1, no one should be upset at all by this. It will sell by the boatloads simply because L4D is a cult classic.
I quickly headed over to the middle booth to check out the Dante’s Inferno showcase. I’d never really watched any footage of the game and had only seen a few screen shots. It’s built on the Dead Space engine and is simply beautiful. It’s a cross between God Of War, Ninja Gaiden and maybe Devil May Cry. This game screams the M rating it will be given and that’s a good thing. They were demoing the Lust level and believe me, there’s enough phallic and vaginal references on this level to have Cooper Lawrence back on Fox News spreading bullshit lies. For all of those on the fence I say this much, think of it as God Of War for the Xbox 360. If you own a PS3 and are anxious to pick up GOW3 in March, you probably won’t be missing anything. If you own a 360 and want good GOW clone, Dante’s is for you. If you love this genre you’ll probably buy both GOW3 and Dante’s Inferno.
I briefly checked out Dragon Age, Saboteur and Mass Effect 2. Although I’m not sold on Dragon Age yet, it still looks good. It seems like EA is going for the jugular in 2010. Pretty much all the titles they are releasing are triple A. They’ve got more developer synergy than any publisher in the business and I’m glad to see that the EA of old has returned.
Let me look into my crystal ball. EA is doing big this.
Army of TWO will be the first heavy hitter for EA. Sales will be .4mil – .6mil fist 30days, because the early retirement of MW2. The majority going to 360 users, because of Mag coming out for PS3.
MassEffect2 is going to step it up. It will out do ODST’s first month out doing 1.5mil – 1.7 mil. BioShock chewing at it’s heals under cutting it’s base along with
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, Lost Planet 2 and Dante’s Inferno. FEB is going to be a bitch. Note: Splinter Cell match sales or do better.
Battle Field Bad Company will not hit the 1mil mark until the 2nd month, March is going to be a son of a bitch. The reason being is that the word needs to get out about it. But if Crysis2 out along with GT5.
To many games, to little money. Gamagedon , like the great plagues of years ago, is going to spell the end of days for many of the unlucky, but income tax is going to be there for the rest of us. Bottom line the sales potential for all these games wont be seen till March or April for the US.
and the point of your post is…? To worry about sales? btw odst sold more then that considering the 1 month mark just passed and its closer to 3 million…..and still dont understand the reason for the post trying to guess future sales?
Because of the delay of these game was to stop a bottle-neck, All it is causing a choke point down the line. “O what do i buy.” The point is that, this a numbers game. Let me take you to another part of the entertainment segment. Music,this was brought up by HHG. Why don’t heavy hitting albums come out so close together? Hmm…they aren’t that expensive..$13-$18 to $50-$60. They want to maximize sales. There are some heavy hitting games coming out, there are going to be casualties. Why do you think Microsoft threw money at Bungieand and not RARE(not apparent)..their past performance. There is a pecking order in life and gaming, “Coffee is for closers!”
Moving to the Forums____
i been f@ck with ea since bulls vs lakers on Sega genesis they are a good company and bring alot to the table. im glad to finally see some more creativity out of them .dead space,bf bad company, dante’s inferno ,all these games look awesome.cause for a hot minute in the late 90 early 00-01 i thought the only games they had were madden,live,medal of honor and the sims so yeah they have came a long way