Medal of Honor: Warfighter Sales Continue to Disappoint

[MikeWehner]

Medal of Honor: Warfighter Sales Continue to Disappoint

EA's attempt to revive a storied series isn't going as well as it planned.

EA's Medal of Honor: Warfighter has some pretty stiff holiday competition, including a new Halo title and, of course, Call of Duty looming on the horizon, but its first week U.S. sales numbers are even lower than most predicted: 300,000 units. Current worldwide estimates put sales at just over 500,000. Compared to 2010's Medal of Honor title, which sold over 2 million units in its first two weeks, those numbers aren't making anyone at EA very happy.

Warfighter has taken it on the chin from critics far and wide, with complaints ranging from game-breaking bugs to a weak storyline. The game currently holds a Metacritic rating in the mid 50's, reflecting a general consensus that the new title - and perhaps even the franchise as a whole - is stale.

The poor retail numbers aren't a surprise to EA, and the company knew right away that the game wasn't off to a great start. In the company's own financial projections, CEO John Riccitiello warned that earnings would be "soft" thanks to Warfighter's lackluster performance.

EA's plan to compete with Activision's Call of Duty series has been to launch new iterations of the Medal of Honor and Battlefield franchises in offsetting years, much like the flip-flop release schedule of the Modern Warfare and Black Ops flavors of Call of Duty. If this year's reviews and sales figures are any hint of the future, this strategy will need some serious tweaking.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-09-moh-warfighter-sells-300k-in-us-debut-week]

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[CardinalPiggles]

500,000 units worldwide? How much money did they pour into this?

EA just stop trying to compete with Activision for your own sake.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Good. The first game was god awful, and nothing from the previews gave me any hope that this would be any different. I love how they basically just said, "Let's copy Activision and it'll be like printing money!"

Hats off to Activision for pulling it off well. Can't wait for Black Ops 2 next week...

 

[yuval152]

It should be this way, MOH Warfighter is just another COD ripoff.

I hope this failure might make EA focus on making good games instead of BROWN SHOOTER X.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

... This wasn't unexpected?

Let's just think for a sec. Another terrible, short "cinematic" linear single player with invisible walls and next to no story? Another poorly balanced progression-based multi player? Yep, that'll revive the series for sure!

They stopped trying ages ago. Let the series rest, there are enough MMS games on the market already.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

500,000 units worldwide? How much money did they pour into this?

EA just stop trying to compete with Activision for your own sake.

They put more into marketing than development. That's their problem. And that's how fuckin' retarded they are.

And honestly what the fuck did they think will happen? Did they think this modern military shooter shit will last forever? Even CoD had to slightly change this year.

 

[John the Gamer]

Could it be that this is the end for crappy quasi-realistic shooter series? Could this be the beginning of quality games returning from the abyss wherein they were cast?

Probably not, but it's a start. By the Gods I hope it's a start.

 

[Azuaron]

It should be this way, MOH is just another COD ripoff.

I hope this failure might make EA focus on making good games instead of BROWN SHOOTER X.

First release of Medal of Honor: October 31, 1999

First release of Battlefield (1942): September 10, 2002

First release of Call of Duty: October 29, 2003

I'm totally on board with every modern military shooter crashing and burning, but Medal of Honor was arguably the first major MMS (depending on whether you classify Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six [August 21, 1998] as "major"). Call of Duty is actually a fairly late entry to the genre.

 

[yuval152]

It should be this way, MOH is just another COD ripoff.

I hope this failure might make EA focus on making good games instead of BROWN SHOOTER X.

First release of Medal of Honor: October 31, 1999

First release of Battlefield (1942): September 10, 2002

First release of Call of Duty: October 29, 2003

I'm totally on board with every modern military shooter crashing and burning, but Medal of Honor was arguably the first major MMS (depending on whether you classify Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six [August 21, 1998] as "major"). Call of Duty is actually a fairly late entry to the genre.

I was talking about Warfighter, everybody knows that MOH(series) came before COD.

 

[Rad Party God]

I hope EA realises soon that copying the competition won't do them any good...

Or... just let it die and keep milking Battlefield.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

It should be this way, MOH is just another COD ripoff.

I hope this failure might make EA focus on making good games instead of BROWN SHOOTER X.

First release of Medal of Honor: October 31, 1999

First release of Battlefield (1942): September 10, 2002

First release of Call of Duty: October 29, 2003

I'm totally on board with every modern military shooter crashing and burning, but Medal of Honor was arguably the first major MMS (depending on whether you classify Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six [August 21, 1998] as "major"). Call of Duty is actually a fairly late entry to the genre.

All of the games you mentioned were WWII shooters; Battlefield 2 & Arma I were the first MMS's.

I can't help feeling that TotalBiscuit's critique of Warfighter resulted in the sales drop, or maybe gamers are becoming smarter.

(remembers CoD kiddie encounters)

...

Probably due to TB then.

 

[Dtypb Davis]

I was kinda looking forward to playing Warfighter... too bad it's not on Steam, I'm not so interested that I'm gonna download Origin. Work it out w/ Valve, EA! Ya jackholes!

 

[slacker2]

Delta force black hawk down was the first mms. I remember plating the demo, and it wa pretty much like the modern n warfare games.

 

[PunkRex]

I reeeeeeeally hope this doesn't cost to many people their jobs...

 

[ShirowShirow]

Oh hey, Bad games selling poorly. I can honestly say I'm happy about this. Next step; Good games selling well!

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Good.

The industry needs to learn that copying CoD will not garentee you sales anymore.

 

[Susurrus]

It's a shame, really, because the first few Medal of Honour games were absolutely great. Pacific Assault is, for me, the pinnacle of WW2 shooters, and that was a Medal of Honour game. But given that the last two MoH games have been appalling (whatever the last one was called, and then that terribad Medal of Honour Airborne), it's hardly surprising that people have stopped buying.

 

[mrm5561]

this is one series that might want to consider going back to ww2 or just going away all together. shame the series came to this i have fond memories of pacific assault and rising sun