Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski is confident that their upcoming title Gears of War 3 will sell “definitely over six million” copies when it hits the shelves in September. Also though he is confident about the number, he added that the studio would be ecstatic if they reached 10 million.
“Deep down, just to be perfectly candid and honest, I would die if we hit ten – that would be phenomenal. But I can only pray and hope. It’s up to the gamers to vote with their wallets. Definitely over six million, obviously,” Bleszinski told IndustryGamers. It is a bit of a tall stretch, considering that Gears of War 1 and 2 combined only sold 12 million copies.
The game has a rather tough time ahead, as it will be released around the same time as Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3 and Activision’s Modern Warfare 3.
“(MW3 and BF3) are going head to head in November, and we have a good month-and-a-half before then. I’m hoping if we get enough of that installed base of people who are hooked on our system of ribbons and unlockables and achievement points, gamers will be like, ‘Damnit, no, I (don’t) have to buy either Call of Duty or Battlefield, cause I’m keeping Gears.’ That’s what we’re hoping for,” Bleszinski added.
As far as the production on the Gears Of War film is concerned, Bleszinski said that things aren’t exactly going as planned. “It’s in development hell right now. Who knows what’ll happen? It took however many years for Peter Jackson to make Lord of the Rings. Hollywood is a complicated beast. There are all sorts of weirdness going on with who’s working on it, what’s going on here and there. But, hopefully it happens. Maybe the Gears 3 success will generate more interest in it,” he told GameFront.
By Charlie Fripp – Consumer editor
