Pachter: Modern Warfare 3 Will Sell Double Battlefield 3 Units In 2011

Sales of upcoming, highly anticipated shooters Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will make up around 15 percent of total packaged video game software sales for the current fiscal quarter, according to analysts. As reported by business news website Forbes, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter predicted that together the two games will sell over $1.4 billion in revenue during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011. As for the individual titles, Pachter suggested that Modern Warfare 3 will sell around 16 million units this year, and go on to sell another 8 million during 2012. In comparison, he believes that Battlefield 3 will sell 8 million this year, and an additional 2 million copies next year. He said, "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." EA revealed earlier this month that pre-orders of Battlefield 3 have now surpassed 2 million in total. The game is due to be released this week. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, on the other hand, was on track to receive more pre-orders that its predecessor Black Ops at last count.