Battlefield potential Modern Warfare killer

It’s still riding high in the upper echelons of the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40, and now one analyst has predicted that EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company franchise could do the unspeakable and topple Modern Warfare from atop of the FPS kingdom.

Speaking of EA’s growing solidarity, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey stated: We’re encouraged by the strong sales performance from emerging mega franchises like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Battlefield, which we see as a potential Modern Warfare killer.”

The prediction is all the more chilling for Activision considering the troubles currently enveloping Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward.

EA has enjoyed an excellent start to 2010 – a period in which it was the most successful publisher in the UK. And Battlefield has proved remarkably resilient at the top of the UK charts.

But EA has several more strings to its publishing bow.

EA has been plagued over the last several years by franchise fatigue and new IP market fragility,” Hickey added. Examples include Madden, NFS, Mirrors Edge, Army of Two, Spore, which we believe they have stabilized and/or eliminated from their forward game slate.

We remain optimistic for potential upside from games like Medal of Honor (a prior power franchise), Bulletstorm (cover of May Game Informer magazine), Dead Space 2 and the unannounced new IP (potential fiscal 2012 release) from the newly formed Respawn Entertainment studio through EA Partners.”