Wedbush-Morgan’s securities analyst Michael Pachter is predicting that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will sell 16M copies worldwide, while Battlefield 3 will move 8M. Pachter doesn’t think Battlefield 3 will cut into Modern Warfare 3’s sales.
“I’d guess that around half of the console copies of Battlefield 3 will be bought by people who also buy Modern Warfare 3, so around 2 to 3 million will buy both. I don’t see much cannibalization of the titles,” Pachter stated in an interview with Forbes Magazine.
If Pachter’s numbers are accurate, the two games combined will bring in $1.4 billion in revenue in the fourth financial quarter. This would account for a whopping 15% of total packaged software sales over that three month period. Beyond the fourth quarter, Pachter predicts that Modern Warfare 3 will sell an additional 8M copies for the following 12 months, while Battlefield 3 will sell 2M.
Battlefield 3 was released today to mostly positive reviews, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be release in the first week of November.
