A little analyst commentary to play us out for the evening. EA's Medal of Honor: Warfighter "is likely to be a major disappointment", Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz has opined, with projected worldwide sales of 3-4 million units billed decidedly over-optimistic.
"Since late July we have been cautious about EA's ability to reach management's FY13 guidance due to our view that Medal of Honor: Warfighter appears likely to be a major disappointment," Creutz told GamesIndustry. "On July 30 we cut our FY13 EPS estimate to $0.86, well below guidance of $1.05-$1.20, and we currently carry a $0.87 FY13 estimate, close to the Street low.
EA faces no shortage of strong competition, Creutz noted, adding that an absence of review copies suggests the publisher has lost faith in the game. "With only a week before a murderer's row of AAA titles begins to come out (Assassin's Creed III on October 30; Halo 4 on November 6; Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on November 13), we think MoH:W has a very short window to capture sales, and a dearth of reviews is unlikely to help.
"The decision to make early review copies unavailable does not suggest to us that the company has a high degree of confidence in the quality of the game."
We haven't received ours yet. Make of that what you will, and by all means revisit the most recent Medal of Honor: Warfighter preview. The game's out on 26th October.
7 comments so far...
Bezza89 on 22 Oct '12 said:
When is it out? Tomorrow? I assume friday for the uk, would we get a review by then based on american copies or does it not work like that. Plus, three days isn't much to assess quality really nevermind write it up. I'm not even interested in the game, but do like reading reviews... I'm quite odd come to think of it.
OXM ETboy on 22 Oct '12 said:
Fine, I'll do the "responsible reporting" thing and include a release date.
Joe90_Remy700 on 22 Oct '12 said:
i went from dead excited when i first heard about the game, to dead disappointed when i played the demo. it seems to bring nothing new, and is quite different to the revamp a few years ago but in a bad way
Bubblebeard JS on 23 Oct '12 said:
Myself not being a MW3 fan, i like the battlefield series, online just pisses over the call of duties, i liked the last MOH and was looking forward to this release, but your rite, the beta was awfull, nothing new, graphics was terrible, the is clearly just a quick fire release before the next call of duty drops in......Yawn
The only reason this might sell is because of the Battlefield 4 BETA.....oh yes please.
hujiki on 23 Oct '12 said:
I dont know about all you guys but i thought the game was pretty decent, We only had one map and that was a dark one so lets see when things get lit up. I have high hopes for this... Fingers Crossed...
Lancer Armstrong on 23 Oct '12 said:
I swear Activision is paying analysts to say shit like that. Wouldn't surprise me at all.
I'm not really that into military shooters (give me Halo or Gears any day), but I much prefer Battlefield and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to the Call of Duty games. Battlefield makes CoD look like a joke.
I do like the idea of healthy competition, though, so I really hope that Warfighter does well. All the trailers and gameplay footage looked excellent. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Metalratex on 23 Oct '12 said:
I was satisfied with the beta though it needed a few corrections. I enjoyed playing alongside a friend. I'm not buying it because I have games ahead of it in my wishlist and that must be the reason the game won't sell greatly. There are very good games launched or to be launched soon.