I'm pretty convinced that this game will begin the downfall of RO2. I see a lot of the casual crowd hopping into Bf3 from RO2, and not returning.
Downfall? Hardly.
Don't get me wrong, i fully expect the number of fully packed RO2 servers to take a dive when BF3 hits, it would be strange if that wasen't the case, people do want to try the new thing after all.
But that said, they are quite different games, who will attract different and dedicated players, and lots of people will want to play them both.
And when it comes right down to it, it's RO2 that has the potential to last, due to all the free followup support and content that TWI has allways given, and the simple fact that it has full mod support.
BF3 won't be getting that, it'll get some patches (and knowing DICE, they will mess around with the balance constantly, which will annoy a lot of players), and it'll get community splitting DLC at $10 a pop, most of it remakes of old maps.
There will be plenty reason for people to come back to RO2, and there will be new maps, tanks and mods waiting for them when they do.
EDIT: New formula! Now with all new reply to this:
Have you seen
this? DICE have said that they believe consoles are holding back PC games. ORLY?
Eh, take note of how when talking about the PC beeing the more capable platform, he's only talking hardware, as in, they can push the graphics further.
That's really an apt description of BF3 from what i can tell, the graphics look gorgeous, there's lots of physics in use, and the game will not be compatible with DX9 era hardware as a result.
But outside of the nice graphics, the game seems to be struggeling just to keep up with it's ancestor, BF2.
Sure they have added 64 players, Jets and prone back in there, but that just means it will be on par with BF2 in thouse areas, which also had all thouse things, but where's the innovation? Where's the "bigger and better" generation leap that one should expect of a sequal, released many years after the fact?
We get nicer graphics, sure, but no innovation, just the same as BF2 made prettier, only at the cost of mod support and server files.. so actually less than BF2 offered, but prettier!!!! YAAAY!! Go Go Gadget lowered expectations!