Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Biggest March Release Ever

[Greg Tito]

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Biggest March Release Ever

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Dvideogames&field-keywords=battlefield+bad+company+2&x=0&y=0&sprefix=battlefield] is on pace to be the best-selling videogame ever released in the month of March.

EA's BBC2 has sold over 2.3 million copies according to internal data. Coupled with some pretty big multiplayer statistics like over 81 billion points earned in online play and 230 thousand peak concurrent users, it's clear that Electronic Arts is touting BBC2 as a huge success. For Swedish developer DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment), the sales are especially encouraging, even if it was a bit of a surprise. Despite some hiccups with multiplayer support [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98942-Battlefield-Bad-Company-2-Invades-Sales-Charts], DICE has added more servers and promise to support more multiplayer matches going forward.

"We are so thrilled with the success of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sales and fan response. In the first 48 hours we had such a tremendous rush to multiplayer gameplay that our servers experienced overwhelming demand. This is a testament to the massive response players have had worldwide for the extraordinary action experienced in the Battlefield sandbox," says Karl Magnus Troedsson from DICE. "DICE and EA have brought more servers online. We now have enough capacity to handle all BBC2 connections seamlessly and we continue to monitor online play daily."

For you number crunchers, here's some figures released by EA speaking to just how popular BBC2 has been:


?81B points have been earned in online multiplayer sessions
?43M weapons and gadgets have been unlocked in online multiplayer
?Over 6M video views on YouTube
?2.9M hours have been spent playing online in the last 24 hours alone
?230K peak-concurrent-users (PCUs)
?Over 44k Twitter fans (most out of any EA title)


While some of this reeks of a publisher trying to spin the fact that servers were down as a good thing, (How could we have known a game released in March would do so well?!) it's good to see them be up front about just what kind of numbers they experienced.

Permalink

 

[Irridium]

"Karl Magnus Troedsson"

Why do all Swedish names sound so ass-kickingly awesome?

OT: Doesn't suprise me that much actually. Battlefield has always been a popular series. Not to mention all the hype they built up.

 

[Abedeus]

Hype worth the game. Or game worth the hype, whatever.

...The game is simply awesome.

 

[azncutthroat]

And DICE deserves every bit of that glory. I just hope EA has the gratitude to actually share some of that glory and profits with the developers, unlike Activision.

 

[silverbullet1989]

nice that ea and dice wernt to busy counting their money to respond and fix the server problem asap unlike some other developer that lets a bug ridden game continue for weeks and months with no fixes for the most annoying bugs.... *cough javelin glitch, *cough care package glitch cough*
oh excuse me

 

[Asehujiko]

This is one of the few major fps releases lately that fully deserved all the hype and praise they received.

Incidentally, is there any Escapist steam group for this?

 

[Jared]

Certainly gathered some support and going strong at the moment. But, is it going to stay like that is the question

 

[Low Key]

As long as they fixed the server issue (at least it wasn't exploitable bugs *cough* MW2), I'm rather impressed. From what I've heard, BC2 will be the next FPS I will be buying.

 

[Gh0st1y_H]

I think EA and DICE are taking marketing strategies from early day Sony:

If you don't supply, there will eventually be some kind of demand.

Honestly, I'm not trying to rag on BC2 for being bad, because I actually kind of like this game. The problem is that, for some reason, this and 1943 both had server overloads. Did they seriously think that, since the first one was popular, nobody would want the second? This just leads to unnecessary frustration.

 

[Bretty]

I bet you wont see the top DICE guys getting axed over royalties either.

I love BC2. The whole Battlefield series is a shinning light in the gaming market. I have loved the SP (wish it was more funny though) but the MP is easily the best MP out there, hands down....

 

[Deathfish15]

Now all they have to do is allow for console and administrative ability usage for their PC version so that we can better deal with our servers (really, what's the point of renting a server if we cannot handle it our own way?).


But ya, this game is freakin' sweet!

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

Definitely looks great. I shall put off buying it, however, until I can get my 360 fixed. Which looks as though it might take a while.

 

[Korten12]

I love this game... when it works... I have been trying to play all week and its now not letting me after they updated the game... its really starting to piss me off.

 

[JMV]

I loved the MP Beta, even though it was nearly impossible to beat players who were actually good using vehicles. However, that's probably because I'm a noob. Other than a few mismatches, I had a great time playing it and I would love to buy it.

 

[ScottocS]

Love the game, but would like to apreciate it more by actually being able to play it in Multiplayer... or even login properly after a "official" patch. This shit is ridiculous. Not slamming the game either, just dissapointed they didn't think ahead. xD

 

[Korten12]

Love the game, but would like to apreciate it more by actually being able to play it in Multiplayer... or even login properly after a "official" patch. This shit is ridiculous. Not slamming the game either, just dissapointed they didn't think ahead. xD

same I feel your pain...

 

[tim98042]

looks like a really cool game my bro has it but i will need to wait a little bit longer until i can spare the funds!! lol

 

[dochmbi]

Yeah awesome game, I love the forced mouse smoothing and low fov, it makes the game so much more immersive.

 

[SilverKyo]

you know, the game looks really interesting, and i plan on playing it, but this particular statistic... the highest selling game in March... that's like winning the special olymics... is it really a competition?

edit: although i really didn't like the first one for it's incredibly broken single player with instant healing syringes on a very short cooldown, respawning without going back to check points, being able to knife a tank to death, and it's overall terrible story line. i heard the multiplayer was decent, but i couldn't be bothered to go rent it again to test that theory. thankfully, this one seems to have fixed those problems, so i'm willing to give it another chance.