Battlefield 1943 now officially the fastest-selling game download.
With the inclusion of only three tweaked multiplayer maps, some gaming fans were not holding out much hope for Battlefield 1943, but with a download price of just $15 reflecting the somewhat limited content, Electronic Arts’ (EA) latest online release has shot off the virtual shelves and is breaking records left right and center.
In fact, Battlefield 1943 has notched up a massive 600,000 purchases since its launch, making it the fastest selling day-one and week-one download release to ever hit Xbox Live’s global network, rather than just attracting players to the point of merely selling well.
Hitting the market as the multiplayer sequel to the hugely popular World War II shooter Battlefield 1942, the new release caters for up to 24 players across the existing Pacific gameplay environments of Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. EA had initially locked off a fourth map called Coral Sea, promising to unlock it on each respective platform when its gamers amassed an online kill count of 43 million. However, after players collectively reached 43 million kills, their respective console versions received access to the additional Coral Sea map.
With the Xbox 360 sporting a stronger rate of adoption, that figure of 43 million was surpassed with ease on Xbox Live in a mere five days – although PlayStation Network players were not far behind, reaching the required mark in a respectable eight days.