Bad Company 2 Hits 2.3 Million Sold

Electronic Arts' Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has sold through 2.3 million units globally since its March 2 debut, developer DICE said today. The game's seen 230,000 concurrent users at peak, and players have spent a collective 2.9 million hours online in the last 24 hours alone, says the company. In fact, Battlefield franchise EP Karl Magnus Troedsson says the game saw "such a tremendous rush to multiplayer gameplay" at launch that servers were initially overwhelmed -- a problem that's since been resolved. "DICE and EA have brought more servers online," he says. "We now have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections seamlessly and we continue to monitor online play daily." Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz says the title's performance bodes well for industry software sales in general, and he expects March NPD results to show growth of about 8-10 percent partially as a result of the game's strong performance, as well as "a strong release slate of core gamer titles and vastly easier comps." But although he says the game could sell 4 million units in its first year -- and raised his estimates for EA's fiscal year sales -- Creutz doesn't think Bad Company 2 is enough to save EA shares. "We continue to view ERTS shares as expensive and believe the company is unlikely return to historical operating income margin levels anytime soon," says the analyst.