A lot of people went out to buy Black Ops on release day. Imagine that!
Activision is calling Call of Duty: Black Ops' launch the "biggest entertainment launch" ever recorded. The publisher is reporting that Treyarch's shooter generated around $360 million worth of sales in the US and the UK alone in its first 24 hours on store shelves, which beats Modern Warfare 2's alleged record-breaking sell-through in the same regions, during the same frame, of $310 million in 2009.
In terms of games sold, Activision estimates that Black Ops sold 5.6 million in this period. MW2, for comparison's sake, sold a measly 4.7 million copies.
And you better believe Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had something to say about this crazy news. "There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," Kotick said in a statement. Later, he said that Activision will support Black Ops with DLC on a more frequent basis than it has previously with other titles.
Crazy numbers, right? I was floored to see 3.9 million people on the Xbox 360 version alone last night, so I'm not doubting what Activision is saying. The game is popular, and popular in an explosive we've-never-seen-numbers-like-these-before kind of way. But I wonder just how many units will be sold within, say, the first month? Will we have an even crazier story about Black Ops' sales this December?
Activision is calling Call of Duty: Black Ops' launch the "biggest entertainment launch" ever recorded. The publisher is reporting that Treyarch's shooter generated around $360 million worth of sales in the US and the UK alone in its first 24 hours on store shelves, which beats Modern Warfare 2's alleged record-breaking sell-through in the same regions, during the same frame, of $310 million in 2009.
In terms of games sold, Activision estimates that Black Ops sold 5.6 million in this period. MW2, for comparison's sake, sold a measly 4.7 million copies.
And you better believe Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had something to say about this crazy news. "There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," Kotick said in a statement. Later, he said that Activision will support Black Ops with DLC on a more frequent basis than it has previously with other titles.
Crazy numbers, right? I was floored to see 3.9 million people on the Xbox 360 version alone last night, so I'm not doubting what Activision is saying. The game is popular, and popular in an explosive we've-never-seen-numbers-like-these-before kind of way. But I wonder just how many units will be sold within, say, the first month? Will we have an even crazier story about Black Ops' sales this December?
A little surprised the sales actually grew. I assumed they would be mostly equal, if a little less. Just goes to show that although engineers like to shit on the marketing department, those guys can make MONEY.
I wonder how Activision will still barely manage to make a profit again this quarter? With this franchise and WoW they should be pretty well set money-wise, but they're always just scraping by making a few tens of millions a quarter. I wonder why shareholders don't want a piece of that action and instead let Kotick give 90% of the profits to the top ten executives as eight or nine figure salaries and bonuses.
" This really surprised me. I guess people don't know the difference between Infinity Ward and Treyarch. They just know Call of Duty. "
I for one had 0 faith in TREYARC that this video game was going to be worth a shit, but the campaign while GB thinks it's a bit hokey, I mean c'mon MW2 wasn't the definition of HOKEY? I bet Michael Bay was cheated out of his production credits on the last one. Damn sure felt like I was playing badboys12transformers12 : modern warfare.
But shit, I actually enjoy this, the changes they made while it seems they "COPIED" another studios formula.
I say if someone is going to play someone in a movie, the same fucking actor better be playing the same character in part 2 even if it's written by someone else.
And this new game follows the modern combat formula to a T. While many things could be improved like the games audio design for one so it doesn't seem so arcade shooterish. I think it's excellent and definitely a step up from the rubbish they've pumped out with all of their other buggy games.
The fact that they are offering live support, have reporting on glitchers, and are LISTENING to peoples feedback instead of busting an INFINITY WARD
YEAH WE RELEASED THE GAME, ITS PERFECT, WE GOT PAID, NO BETA NEEDED, IT GOT HACKED OH WELL, DID I MENTION WE GOT PAID, PEACE BITCHES.
I will NEVER buy another game from their DEBUNCT STUDIO, and nothing from their NEW studio if it's FPS related in the least bit.
" This really surprised me. I guess people don't know the difference between Infinity Ward and Treyarch. They just know Call of Duty. "
I have to say, while I expected GARBAGE From this game, both because I'm not a HUGE CoD fan, and indeed, this is treyarch.. This game is pretty damn good. It's significantly better than MW2, at least in terms of multiplayer. It is very, very well balanced. Neither me nor my friend are screaming "THAT'S BULLSHIT" on vent every 3 seconds like we would in MW2. They kept all the good, stripped down all the bad, and the result is a fun balanced multiplayer. Haven't beat single player yet.
I was saying how this game was going to fail, Treyarch is horrible, COD sucks, nothing will be better than 4...but then I played it. Going in with full disdain for the product, I really ended up liking it - A LOT! The removal of Stopping Power and Juggernaut plus the freedom to customize your guns and classes is awesome. Also, the game is balanced quite well balanced (besides the sniper rifles). Kill Streaks and perks also feel great.
The one thing I don't like: Every single thing has to be bought.
So how much of those sales figures are due to its qualities as a game, and how much is due to the ads I was constantly bombarded with over the last two months?
actually kind of surprised, thought it would be big but not as big as MW2. When MW2 came out literally everyone on my friends list was playing it, but now I also see people playing Fallout, Halo, Fable, etc. I do agree with Jeff/GB as a whole though, and I think that the numbers will start to drop off either next year or the next couple years.
" This really surprised me. I guess people don't know the difference between Infinity Ward and Treyarch. They just know Call of Duty. "
Even if they knew the difference, I don't think they'd care. "
Yeah, we really get a warped perception of the views on the studios because game sites naturally are going to have people who know a lot, but if you ask most of the people who just play CoD and maybe a few other blockbusters, at best they may know that the people who make MW and the people who make other CoD titles are different but they just don't give a shit. Treyarch doesn't have the bad name among average people as it does for "hardcore" gamers.
" I barely saw any ads for this game (saw way more MoH ads). I'm interested in this game for other reasons. I haven't been able to get it yet though. "
They just played Black Ops ads during the Celtics vs. Heat game, so I'd say the game's being advertised pretty broadly.
This is a huge surprise to me. I really thought this game didn't have the legs to sell like this. Maybe the clever t.v. commercial sucked in a bunch of casual gamers as well.
" This is a huge surprise to me. I really thought this game didn't have the legs to sell like this. Maybe the clever t.v. commercial sucked in a bunch of casual gamers as well. "
I think a lot of people also bought it because they heard how amazing the last game was. Call of Duty is pretty mainstream after all, and both Black Ops and MW2 have gotten a lot of news coverage.
I wonder if this means Black Ops will sell more than Modern Warfare 2, or that a lot of people who bought Modern Warfare 2 later in its lifecycle bought Black Ops sooner than last year?
" I barely saw any ads for this game (saw way more MoH ads). I'm interested in this game for other reasons. I haven't been able to get it yet though. "
I don't know where you live, but where I'm at (California) the ads are everywhere. It's even on every single news channel in Los Angeles. It's on FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, KTLA, and KCAL. This just goes to show that it will continue to sell.
Now, I have a lot of doubts for next year. Due to the three Call of Duty developers. If Treyarch does it then it will turn into Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, and Spider-Man because of them doing it yearly. We're are used to seeing it passed between Infinity Ward and Treyarch every year, giving the developers enough time to come up with something good.
This leads to Infinity Ward. That team has lost most of their best people due to the claims that Activision didn't pay out their bonus. Who knows what kind of team is left to take care of the next Call of Duty game. We don't even know if it will be them.
Finally, the last team that Activision pointed out will do a different kind of Call of Duty. Sledgehammer Games. I don't know what games they have done or what kind of experience they have. I'm not saying they will suck, but I'm hoping they come out with something decent.
" I barely saw any ads for this game (saw way more MoH ads). I'm interested in this game for other reasons. I haven't been able to get it yet though. "
really? i rarely watch tv and i saw ads all over the place, in stores, all over the web, a ton of commercials on TV and i rarely even watch it, i don't even have normal cable i just get 13 channels lol.
I expected this game to sell worse since its not Modern Warfare and because so many people hated on MW2 and that got such rave reviews. This still reviewed well but they werent nearly the MW2 numbers so im surprised this sold even more. Guess the worst part about this all is the fact that this series still wont die.
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