EA's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 blasts out 2.3M unit sales

Electronic Arts said today that its Battlefield: Bad Company 2 video game has sold more than 2.3 million units, putting the game on track to be a contender for best seller of the month.

The game — where you can destroy environments as you shoot at enemies — went on sale on March 2 on the PlayStation 3, the PC and Xbox 360. The brisk sales should come as a relief to EA, the struggling game giant that has laid off 1,500 people, or 15 percent of its staff, during the past couple of quarters. That comes on the heels of strong sales of Mass Effect 2, launched on Jan. 26. Dante’s Inferno, launched in February, has also sold well for a brand new title that is not a sequel.

Of course, EA faces stiff competition this month. Sony’s God of War III launched for the PlayStation 3 this week, Nintendo has a bunch of new titles coming, and BioShock 2 from Take-Two Interactive is also selling well. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has an average review score of 89 on review aggregator Metacritic.com.

It will be interesting to watch if Battlefield: Bad Company 2 can put a dent in sales of Modern Warfare 2, which still commands a lot of multiplayer time among hardcore shooter fans. EA says that 81 billion points have been awarded in multiplayer sessions, 43 million weapons and gadgets have been unlocked, and 2.9 million hours have been spent playing online in the last 24 hours alone. The company has brought more servers online to handle the capacity.

In the first-person shooter game Battlefield, players can destroy buildings and other things while hunting down enemies. They can also ride in vehicles and choose from a wide array of weapons of the modern battlefield. EA is launching two new multiplayer maps online on March 30 for no extra charge.

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