It’s been almost 2 years since the release of Battlefield 1943 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and a PC version has been delayed over and over again, finally, DICE has canceled the damn thing outright.

Instead, BF3Blog reports that DICE will be spending the resources on Battlefield 3, which it intends to make the biggest Battlefield game ever. In addition to canceling BF1943, the “Onslaught” Bad Company 2 DLC for PC has been canned as well.

Via BF3Blog.

During a recent presentation at UBS 39th Annual Media and Communications Conference , EA revealed that the downloadable game Battlefield 1943 has generated some $16 million in revenue, while costing less than $10 million to produce (EA says “development was in the single digit millions”). The $16 million in revenue are after Microsoft and Sony took their 30% cut.

This adds to EA’s claim that this fiscal year, 20% of revenue will be generated by digital downloads — games and DLC, as we reported yesterday.

Battlefield 1943 was supposed to be released on the PC this February. Then it was July. And now, the release date is unknown — and to prove that EA is really unsure, they’ve refunded the folks who pre-ordered the game. Don’t expect to see BF1943 before the end of this year. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions where released over a year ago.

Battlefield 1943 was released to Xbox Live some time ago and it’s been met with an amazing reception. Such good reception, in fact, that it was just announced that the game has sold 1 million copies. Of course, the game retails for just $15 so it’d be unfair to compare it to full priced titles but DICE assures us that Battlefield 1943 is the fastest title to hit 1 million downloads. Good job!

via cvg

EA is running a discount on the downloadable multiplayer title Battlefield 1943, which this week only retails for 800 MS points, or $10 (instead of the usual $15). This is most likely to sell as many 1943 copies as possible, since Bad Company 2 comes out in two weeks, and will pretty much stall 1943 sales for a while.

It comes as no surprise that the excellent Battlefield 1942 has become the best selling title on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009, outselling competitors such as Castle Crashers and Shadow Complex. The full list of the top ten selling XBLA games in 2009:

1. 1 Battlefield 1943
2. 2 Castle Crashers
3. 3 Trials HD
4. 4 Hasbro Family Game Night
5. 5 Shadow Complex
6. 6 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
7. 7 Magic: The Gathering
8. 8 UNO
9. 9 Worms
10. 10 Peggle

EA has today come forth to give us the PC specs for not only Battlefield: Bad Company 2 but also Battlefield 1943. According to Kotaku, both games run on the same engine so the specs are generally the same.

Below are both the minimum and recommended specs for both games:

Minimum Specs
Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900
Graphics memory: 256MB
OS: Windows XP
Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2), 10GB for Digital Version, 4GB for Disc Version (BF1943)

Recommended Specs
Processor: Quadcore
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce GTX 260
Graphics memory: 512MB
OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2), 10GB for Digital Version, 4GB for Disc Version (BF1943)

It seems that the guy who founded DICE, Fredrik Liljengren has moved onto bigger and better things with his latest game studio, Antic Entertainment. You may be familiar with DICE as the studio behind Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: 1943.

Anyways, Antic Entertainment is to be a studio that specializes in free-to-play games with their first title being Junk: Battles. This browser based RTS will let players create their own ship and then duke it out against other players as they collect parts to upgrade said ship.

If you want to read more about Junk: Battles and Antic Entertainment, head over to the game’s official website here.

via gamasutra

We already know that Battlefield 1943 was nothing less than a huge success but EA has given us some exact numbers today. Since the game went live on July 8th there have been over 600,000 copies of the game purchased digitally apparantly setting a new record.

Producer of the game, Gordon Van Dyke, speaks of the success below:

“We are honoured by the reception that the game has received so far. Watching and participating in this non-stop multiplayer action has been a real treat for us and we can’t believe how fast our fans reached 43 million kills. We can now truly say that we have set a new standard for what can be done in the downloadable games category and gamers recognize the endless value that Battlefield 1943 provides for just $15.”

Now that Battlefield 1943 has proven its worth I think its safe to say that EA will pull an Activision and release countless titles that mimic its gameplay.

via Kotaku

Have you played Battlefield 1943? If so, have you died? If yes then perhaps you were one of the 5 million virtual deaths that happened on the first day the game hit the market.

Furthermore, on Xbox Live alone there were more than 29 years of gameplay logged on the first day as well.

Crazy? Yes. I’m sure part of Battlefield 1943‘s success could be attributed to the fact that ti was priced at only $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points. Not to mention the fact that you didn’t even have to get off the couch to purchase the game as it is offered over both Xbox Live and the Playstation network.

Read (VG247)