EA’s COO says that his company will have to settle for third in the race for FPS top dog next year.
EA’s Chief Operations Officer John Schappert believes that between Battlefield and the reboot of Medal of Honor, the publisher will see a significant increase in its share of the FPS market. But despite this growth, he’s not expecting EA to be king of the castle just yet.
In an earnings call, Schappert said that 2010 had been a good year for EA in terms of FPS market share – better than any in recent history – and said that it was almost a “foregone conclusion” that 2011 would bring further increases. But thanks to competition from Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halo: Reach, he said, EA wouldn’t be the market leader in 2011.
“[M]ake no mistake, we think we’ve got the people and the brands to take the leadership back in the FPS space,” he said. “[But] I don’t expect to topple either Halo or CoD this year.”
It’s not really surprising that Schappert isn’t expecting to crush the opposition, as Call of Duty and Halo are both enormous brands, and while the Medal of Honor series has its fans, expecting it to triumph over two giants of the genre is just unrealistic. Medal of Honor, Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops are all scheduled for release this fall.
Source: Seeking Alpha via Eurogamer
