Activision and Treyarch's upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops is seeing faster preorder pickup than its Infinity Ward-created predecessor Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, according to Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson, who projects the game's total holiday season sales at 12 million units.
That figure, reported this week by GameSpot and by IndustryGamers, represents a 20 percent increase over Wilson's previous holiday season sales expectation of 10 million units. The analyst boosted his expectations after speaking to Pacific Crest's retail contacts, who have received more preorders for Black Ops than they had at the same point prior to the release of Infinity Ward's last game.
Still, while every game in the Call of Duty game over the series' seven-year history has set a new franchise sales record so far, Wilson thinks that trend ended with Modern Warfare 2.
That game managed to accrue 16 million units in its holiday season release period, 33 percent more than what is expected for Black Ops, and Black Ops is unlikely to see the same long-term sales over time.
Wilson pointed to "competition, weaker marketing, and the Infinity Ward situation" -- referring to the Modern Warfare 2 studio's well-publicized employee drain -- as primary factors informing his sales expectations.
Pre-orders and initial sales are not a reflection on the product itself, but on the good will from the fans. Modern Warfare 2 was a blockbuster hit, so it's sensible to expect strong pre-orders for the next installment.
However, the meltdown at Infinity Ward and the feud between developers and Activision will have an impact on the Call of Duty series. Many fans will sit this one out, in solidarity with IW, and they will judge CoD: Black Ops very harshly. And the longer this feud drags on, the more damage suffered at retail.
I'm sure Black Ops will be very successful, so there's no reason to worry here (it's not like the game is going to tank). The next game in the series will be cause for worry. By then, the perception may be of a series in decline, and in a market heavily saturated with first-person shooters, this will be a difficult challenge to overcome.
Perhaps this would be a good time to ask why Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are so overloaded with these shooting games? Shouldn't there be a little more diversity in the software library? It's like that South Park episode where every kids shows up at Halloween dressed as Chewbacca.
The main reason a bunch of people will want this game is purely for the multiplayer. Sadly pre-orders and fan anticipation can't shine any light on the single player portion of the game.
This is a reflection of the same situation that happens every gen & is a growing problem too high a percentage of game sales go to too few titles.
Developers started complaining about this in the PS1 era & it was a bit worse for the ps2 gen well dejavu.
*The blind fallow the blind & the line grows longer evey year..
Congrats to activisionblizzard..for having the lucky franchies this gen.
@DanielThomas MacInnes
Perhaps this would be a good time to ask why Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are so overloaded with these shooting games? Shouldn't there be a little more diversity in the software library?
I agree specialy when the shooters are mostly just lower grade versions of pc games.
"It's like that South Park episode where every kids shows up at Halloween dressed as Chewbacca."
See my comment* lol SP is so wrong yet correct so often.
We don't know if the game is good, or not, yet it already has a huge amount of preorders...
However, the meltdown at Infinity Ward and the feud between developers and Activision will have an impact on the Call of Duty series. Many fans will sit this one out, in solidarity with IW, and they will judge CoD: Black Ops very harshly. And the longer this feud drags on, the more damage suffered at retail.
I'm sure Black Ops will be very successful, so there's no reason to worry here (it's not like the game is going to tank). The next game in the series will be cause for worry. By then, the perception may be of a series in decline, and in a market heavily saturated with first-person shooters, this will be a difficult challenge to overcome.
Perhaps this would be a good time to ask why Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are so overloaded with these shooting games? Shouldn't there be a little more diversity in the software library? It's like that South Park episode where every kids shows up at Halloween dressed as Chewbacca.
Developers started complaining about this in the PS1 era & it was a bit worse for the ps2 gen well dejavu.
*The blind fallow the blind & the line grows longer evey year..
Congrats to activisionblizzard..for having the lucky franchies this gen.
@DanielThomas MacInnes
Perhaps this would be a good time to ask why Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are so overloaded with these shooting games? Shouldn't there be a little more diversity in the software library?
I agree specialy when the shooters are mostly just lower grade versions of pc games.
"It's like that South Park episode where every kids shows up at Halloween dressed as Chewbacca."
See my comment* lol SP is so wrong yet correct so often.