Despite reports that sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3are beginning to slow down compared to the rest of the franchise, analyst group Cowen and Company says that this decline is down to significantly reduced sales in the PC, Wii and handheld versions, rather than the console releases.
Cowen's Doug Creutz said in his latest report that while life-to-date Modern Warfare 3 retail sales are indeed down 4.6 percent year-over-year compared to Black Ops, sales of the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms are actually slightly up year-over-year.
However, large declines in sales of the versions of the game for Nintendo Wii, handheld platforms and PC have driven the overall decline, he suggests.
He also said that sales faced "a fairly stiff challenge" from EA's Battlefield 3 which launched around the same time as Modern Warfare 3, and he pointed out that EA will not be repeating this move again this year when the next Call of Duty is released.
Overall, Cowen and Company has "slightly trimmed" its sales estimate for the next Call of Duty title to reflect the year-over-year decline of Modern Warfare 3, but the analyst believes that the chances of success for the next title in the series will remain high.
Also, let's not forget that CoD XP isn't available on the PC (and may never be) and that could have negatively impacted sales. I know a lot of people think the XP membership is a money grab by Activision, but jeez, it's hard to argue the demand for this kind of annual subscription wasn't there. Just look at the numbers on the consoles.
"However, large declines in sales of the versions of the game for Nintendo Wii, handheld platforms and PC have driven the overall decline, he suggests."
I would like to point out that these are three platforms that will never have strong sales for a console FPS.
Wii owners are most likely not into FPS games or have a PS3 or 360 on which the ywould buy it, if it is cross platform.
PC gamers tend to not like FPS games that are ports of the console counterpart as they do not take advantage of the capabilities of the PC or have bad control schemes.
Handheld gamers are much like Wii gamers in the respect that few will buy handheld versions of FPS games.
To think that Activision was surprised by the lack of sales on these platforms is absurd.
"PC gamers tend to not like FPS games that are ports of the console counterpart as they do not take advantage of the capabilities of the PC or have bad control schemes."
Not to mention that CoD games on these platforms are not treated with the same respect in design much like the are on the HD counterparts. It has become evident to the gamers on the Wii, PC, and Handhelds that if you want to play CoD as it was intended you need to have a Xbox 360 or PS3.
I'm not going to read too much into this. PC Gaming is near non-existent in Retail as compared to Consoles. It's really the Consoles that have the furthest distance to fall when they all eventually jump on the Digital Disty Band Wagon.
Additionally; there are some nutty things on the Retail/Channel side, that exacerbate all this. For example... not many people know that some of the Mega Retailers once they buy 'x' # of games for a Console - can't return the product - but can return PC games. (A shame the Retailers can't return their Console Games back to the Channel - that'd be awesome!) So the Console Mfg's are out there evangelizing their products to the Retailers/Channel - saying stupid **** like PC Gaming is dying to the Retailers - which throws everything out of balance.....
Then one day they look around... and go "Why aren't our customers buying these shrink wrapped products anymore?" Need examples? (Tower Records, BlockBuster, GAME in the UK, etc... )
So.. couple all the above with other great games in the same genre, or even just great games in general that came out in 2011 - and you're bound to see the market do things like this.
Being a person who play FPS on the Nintendo Wii. I will agree that Wii gamers did not run to MW3. It's not a funnier game than Black Ops also had major online issues during the launch period. Also after the no Black Ops DLC on Wii issue. After Activision suggested that they would provide Wii gamers with new content. Once that turned out to be a lie. Wii gamers might have just stopped buying Call Of Duty products due to some sort of protest.
Still the numbers are down compare to Black Ops on the HD consoles as well. You can't put that all on the Wii, and handhelds. Which are only maybe 15% of total sales of the game.
Not making a better game, Battlefield 3, and lack of Wii plus Handheld is the reason for the decline.
The article notes that MW3 is up relative to BLOPS year-on-year on the HD consoles, not down. Not up by much, mind, but BF3 put in some pretty fierce competition that MoH was unlikely to have matched the year before. Wii gamers also weren't huge on BLOPS (compared with the HD titles, at least - it did well for a non-Ninty game).
I am sorry to basically post "me too", but I think the reason it tanked a bit on the PC was due far more to it being far below the expectations of most PC gamers.
If you don't cater to the platform, the platform won't cater to you. The only exception appears to be Bethesda because they give us the opportunity to fix their amazing mistakes.
Just saying, this may be part of the reason why sales are declining...
Activision is where franchises go to die a long drawn out death.
I would like to point out that these are three platforms that will never have strong sales for a console FPS.
Wii owners are most likely not into FPS games or have a PS3 or 360 on which the ywould buy it, if it is cross platform.
PC gamers tend to not like FPS games that are ports of the console counterpart as they do not take advantage of the capabilities of the PC or have bad control schemes.
Handheld gamers are much like Wii gamers in the respect that few will buy handheld versions of FPS games.
To think that Activision was surprised by the lack of sales on these platforms is absurd.
-This
Additionally; there are some nutty things on the Retail/Channel side, that exacerbate all this. For example... not many people know that some of the Mega Retailers once they buy 'x' # of games for a Console - can't return the product - but can return PC games. (A shame the Retailers can't return their Console Games back to the Channel - that'd be awesome!) So the Console Mfg's are out there evangelizing their products to the Retailers/Channel - saying stupid **** like PC Gaming is dying to the Retailers - which throws everything out of balance.....
Then one day they look around... and go "Why aren't our customers buying these shrink wrapped products anymore?" Need examples? (Tower Records, BlockBuster, GAME in the UK, etc... )
So.. couple all the above with other great games in the same genre, or even just great games in general that came out in 2011 - and you're bound to see the market do things like this.
Still the numbers are down compare to Black Ops on the HD consoles as well. You can't put that all on the Wii, and handhelds. Which are only maybe 15% of total sales of the game.
Not making a better game, Battlefield 3, and lack of Wii plus Handheld is the reason for the decline.
If you don't cater to the platform, the platform won't cater to you. The only exception appears to be Bethesda because they give us the opportunity to fix their amazing mistakes.