Games

Battlefield V a flop before it’s even released? Would be a pity as it looks amazing

August 16, 2018
Michelle Topham

You can tell a lot by the pre-sales of an upcoming video game, particularly when it comes to gamers’ interest and intention to actually buy the game.

After all, weak pre-sales will usually mean a specific game is not likely to do well when it releases if excitement about it isn’t even enough to have strong pre-sales.



This, sadly, is what is happening to Battlefield V at the moment. The upcoming first-person shooter from Electronic Arts.

The same one that has been courting a lot of controversy in recent weeks, with its announcement that there would be female characters to play.

(Well, hey, who would honestly be surprised that a huge percentage of gamers are massively sexist. You only have to be female and have played ‘the boys’ head to head, or to have followed the utter disgrace that was GamerGate to know that’s true).

But, whether it is the fact that Battlefield V has female characters, or that its release will be sandwiched between Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 — two upcoming games with very strong pre-sale figures– the sad fact is pre-sales of Battlefield V are weak and could indicate the game is going to be a flop.

This was noticed by analyst group Cowen this week, with their report posted on the Dow Jones Newswires,and then tweeted about by Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Needleman.

Of course, you can also blame Electronic Arts for this, as they have done hardly any marketing for Battlefield 5 at all so far, which has meant less attention to the game by most people that could be interested in buying it.

Hopefully that will change before the game actually releases on October 11th, but EA really does need to pick up their game if they expect Battlefield V to sell well.

Especially as the first-person shooter is going up against two behemoths that have very strong pre-sale figures already.

Another problem that is adding towards what could end up being the perfect storm for EA and their first-person shooter is that the Battlefield V beta isn’t going to be kicking off until September — the same time Black Ops 4 Blackout beta begins.

That means two massive games offering beta experiences at the same time.

Which do you think most gamers will choose when it comes to anticipation about the game? The one from the company that has been pushing their game like crazy, or the one being published by a company that seems very “Ho hum” about theirs?

Personally, I hope gamers begin to wake up, quit with the sexism over female characters (it’s the 21st century boys. Join it!), and pre-order Battlefield V.

After all, from the little of the game that has been shown so far, it looks gorgeous and a helluva fun game to play.

And if you don’t think so, watch the Battlefield V “Best Moments from the Community” video below. Man, I can’t wait to be able to play that.

Meanwhile, I’m off to pre-order mine.

Michelle Topham
Latest posts by Michelle Topham (see all)


Advertising