EA has aggressively marketed Battlefield 3, and the game isn’t set to go out until Fall 2011. Lincoln Hirshberger, Senior Director of Marketing for Battlefield 3, explained the reasoning for getting the game in front of consumers so early.
With Battlefield 3, we believe that we have superior technology and gameplay, said Hirshberger. The gaming press validated this at GDC with a slew of accolades. We just need for everyone else in the mainstream to know that too. Last year, Battlefield Bad Company 2 earned better scores than the competition but, because Battlefield released in March, a lot of the mainstream Holiday hit buyers just weren’t aware that Battlefield was the better game. This year, we’re playing offense by launching Battlefield 3 in the holiday and we’re starting to get the word out early by kicking off our campaign to the mass market. We decided to go big early in order to establish a beachhead with a larger audience and so far the results have been fantastic.
Comments on message boards have been stellar and it scored a 9.5 on Gametrailers, he added. In terms of the metrics, preorders are up 700 percent at the same point compared with our previous launch of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Website traffic, video views and other metrics are on a similar trajectory. Another key part of our strategy has been to fan the flames and create a network effect with the Battlefield community. The power of social networks is amazing and fun to watch. The TV campaign has jumped-started that effort by enlisting a lot of new FPS fans looking for something new and better.
Source: IndustryGamers
