In a note to investors today, he said the success potential for both
games is not mutually exclusive, especially so because player purchase
habits are different for each franchise.
"The Battlefield series resonates particularly well with the PC gamers,
while Call of Duty tends to do well on consoles," Bhatia said. "We
expect more than a third of Battlefield 4 unit sales to be on the PC
platform and the remaining units on consoles."
Total PC sales for Call of Duty: Ghosts will likely be less than 10
percent of overall units, Bhatia said. "Our point is both franchises can
coexist successfully," he said.
Activision Publishing announced during an earnings call yesterday that preorder figures for Call of Duty: Ghosts are "well below" those of Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
This downturn was attributed to consumer uncertainty regarding
next-generation platforms and described as "normal" for this period in a
console transition.
Battlefield 4 launches October 29, while Call of Duty: Ghosts is out November 5. Next-generation versions of both games are also in the works, though release dates have not been announced.