Can Bad Company 2 be the next Modern Warfare 2 in terms of sales and scores?

Modern Warfare 2 broke all records when it went on sale in November last year. In all proportions, it was easily one of the biggest launches in video games industry. Modern Warfare 2 has sold an estimated 4.7 million copies in it’s first 24 hours of release just in North America and the UK alone.  This breaks the previous fastest selling game record which was GTA: San Andreas.  Activision has generated around $310 Million in revenue in the first day making it the fastest selling video games ever. If you think that was it, the entire franchise is now worth over three billion dollars. When Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 smashed records on its release 2 weeks ago, it took it over $500 million in just 5 days. This took the game sliding past previous records for both books and film. Obviously, this gave Activision one heck of a sound bite, “The biggest entertainment launch in history”.

Expect stunning sequences in the game

The single player story for Modern Warfare 2 was absolutely stunning.  Infinity Ward has kept true to their style of game development by once again making sure you never leave first person view.  I enjoyed the cinematic scenes, but the level of intensity that you get throughout the campaign whilst always being in first person view is great.   Modern Warfare 2 is a direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and picks up right where Call of Duty 4 left off.  Modern Warfare 2 adds a lot more to the campaign than Infinity Ward’s last title, including graphics as well as unique missions that you should definitely experience for yourself.

Graphics, Game play and Multi Player

Visually the game looks on par with Modern Warfare 2.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is game that is looking like it is going to surpass what Modern Warfare 2 achieved.  The original was known for the ability to destroy certain objects like wall, but in the sequel you will be able to bring down an entire building. Let’s talk about the various aspects of the game. First of all graphics, judging by the various game play videos, Bad Company 2 looks as good as or even better than Modern Warfare 2. The game takes place in many different locations like snowy mountains and jungles which will be present in the campaign as well as the various multiplayer modes. You can check the videos of Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2 and judge for yourself:

Let’s talk about the game play and the multiplayer modes.  Modern Warfare 2 had  many surprises and twists throughout the game that no one will see coming, making this story an amazing action packed thriller.  Although the campaign is amazing, it was fairly brief, lasting around 6-8 hours depending on the difficulty.  Multiplayer for Call of Duty 4 is mostly what made it so popular and in Modern Warfare 2 it gets even better.  The addition of many kill streaks and having the ability to customize which ones you want ,with a max of 3 available at once, is where this game’s multiplayer action really differs from Call of Duty 4.  Even in objective modes like Search and Destroy, you can gain kill streaks throughout the course of many rounds, granted you don’t die at the end of the round.  And if you try using you stealth class from Call of Duty 4 or World at War in this game you might not be safe with the addition of Heartbeat sensors as an attachment to certain weapons which detect movement.

The multiplayer element of Bad Company 2 will take it a step ahead. Multiplayer will allow players to choose from a set of weapon kits before each spawn, the number of which has been further reduced from Bad Company’s five down to four: “Assault,” “Engineer,” “Recon,” and “Medic,” removing the “Specialist” kit, whose compact assault rifle and C4 abilities have been split between the “Engineer” and “Recon” classes, respectively. There is also a brand new feature where a customizable weapon menu is given to the player, within which they can select the weapons of their choice before respawning back in to the game. The system will also award player with XP points. These points will be gained by completing certain objectives and killing your opponent. To be fair the multiplayer component of Bad Company looks on par with Modern Warfare 2.

Sales and Scores

This is what matters to the company.

Now let’s take a look at the sales figure of the recent games in the series: (Scores from Metacritic)

Call of Duty Franchise:

• Call of Duty 3: Close to 3 million copies/ 82
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:  Close to 14 million copies/ 94
• Call of Duty: World at War: Close to 12 million copies/ 84
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Close to 15 million copies/ 94

Battlefield Series:

• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat: Close to 1.5 million copies/ 80
• Battlefield: 2142: Close to 1 million copies/ 80
• Battlefield: Bad Company: Close to 2.5 million copies/ 84

Note: We have not included Battlefield 1943 since we did not had an approximate sales figure for it.

Looking at the figures above, it must be a no brainer that Call of Duty is the winner all the way, but Activision angered the gaming community, when they had dropped support for dedicated servers for the game and also disabled party chat feature in the game. DICE actually took this opportunity with both hands and are providing both of the above in Bad Company 2.I am not saying that this feature will be the reason that will drive sales for the game, but it’s nice that DICE actually considered this is as a serious issue.

Bad Company 2 might not break Modern Warfare 2’s stunning record of sales, but it surely does have the fire power to match it with amazing visuals, great game play and an addicting multiplayer mode. So scores wise it could really do well and sales wise it will sell well but not up to the level of Modern Warfare 2, but you never know. The gaming audience is getting broader each day, so I doubt many hardcore gamers will give this game a miss.

Let us know what are your thoughts.