EA confident BF3 DLC will retain players despite impending MW3 release

EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund is confident the firm's content plans will keep gamers interested in Battlefield 3, even with the deluge of titles releasing over the holidays.

Speaking with IGN, Soderlund said he's also pleased at the number of new players the firm welcomed into the Battlefield fold. This helped the title achieve a banner 5 million sales in its first week, making it "the fastest selling game in the history of EA" despite a few launch hiccups.

"The fact that we're seeing a lot of new Battlefield players come into the franchise means a lot to me," he said. "That's been something that I've been trying to push on for a long time, that we wanted to go wider, become a broader, established IP, and it seems like that's really working for us, so that's cool.

"Given the unprecedented user volume that we've seen, we have obviously had some hiccups during the week, and we've been working very actively on solving those, and most of the issues are behind us. The game is performing a lot better. Most people had a very smooth weekend, and we continue to improve the service as we go, basically."

With the upcoming holiday season pressing, Soderlund is confident consumers will continue to show interest in Battlefield 3, even with seasonal juggernaut Call of Duty releasing next week as its biggest competitor.

"The holiday season is clearly very competitive, as we know," he said. "We all respect what Call of Duty brings and what they're going to come with, and I think that we have an industry-leading multiplayer game that will make people want to stay with us, frankly.

"If you look at all the reviews that we've gotten, not a single one that I've seen has been negative towards the multiplayer. In fact, many state that the multiplayer is the multiplayer experience to have, the best in the world. And if I can continue to harness that and work on improving that and give the consumers more of that, then hopefully they're going to feel loyal to us and stay."

"My focus has got to be on our product, and not necessarily on the others. And right now we're out in the market, and that's all I know. When they come out, they come out, and I wish them the best of luck. They're partners in this industry, and I play all their games and I look forward to many of them, and all I can do is try and make sure that people stay interested and want to have more Battlefield."

The first bit of content to arrive for BF3 is the Back to Karkand pack, which will be made available in December. It will be free to those who pre-ordered and £11.99 for those who didn't.