Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Grosses $550 Million

[Digital Puppy]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Sets All-Time Entertainment Industry Record Grossing an Estimated $550 Million Worldwide in First Five Days

Biggest Entertainment Launch in History Continues to Break Records

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov 18, 2009 -- Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues to shatter theatrical box office and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell through in dollars. The biggest entertainment launch in history set a new worldwide estimated five-day sell-through record of approximately $550 million, according to internal Activision estimates.

Modern Warfare 2's launch beat all previous first-and five-day entertainment industry box office, book and video game sell-through records*:

-- The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)
-- The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)
-- The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)
-- The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)
-- The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)
-- The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

Modern Warfare 2's blast radius also extends to Xbox LIVE, in which the blockbuster title's epic release established the following new standards, according to Microsoft:

-- More than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone.
-- More than 2.2 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in one day on November 10th. A new one-day record for Xbox LIVE.
-- More than 11 million achievements were unlocked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day.

"In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "The title's success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media."

Despite the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision Blizzard remains cautious about the U.S. and global economy as well as other variables that can affect industry fundamentals and our own performance, including consumer spending which remains a significant concern.

Modern Warfare 2 is rated "M" (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Language. For additional information about the game, visit http://www.modernwarfare2.com.

About Activision Publishing, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, http://www.activision.com.

[FeRaL]

"These aren't the droids were looking for.... You can go about your business... Move along... Move along...

Honestly aside from the short rushed single player story, and the lack of dedicated servers, it's an alright game. It plays well, seems to be pretty balanced, etc...

[Skippman]

I just wish DICE would get off thier buts and put out BF3 like they've been talking about forever.

[techking13]

I just wish DICE would get off thier buts and put out BF3 like they've been talking about forever.

Agreed. I love BF1 and BF2 and I really hope they put that out. If they made it well, it would be an awesome game.

[Keean]

BF3 would be awesome. Have you looked at BF: Bad Company 2? It's looking pretty sick with the new DX11. Have they made any mention to getting BF3 on the shelves anytime soon, or if it's even being developed right now?

[Skippman]

They're working on it but it's being kept real hush hush. I read things here and there about it like that the levels will be 10x larger and will support 64 on 64 multiplayer. I think if DICE really wants to win back the crown for contemporary warfare they need to make one BIG change:

Mission based scenerios.


It seems like every game is either last man standing or capture the flag. How about "blow up a dam" or "infultrate the base"? I want more varity.

[Keean]

I agree with the mission based scenarios. Although that kind of moves away from the main mission in the game, which is terrain capture and hold. It wouldn't be a bad idea though to be able to switch between having specific scenarios and the traditional "go forth and kill" missions.

I'd personally like to see the ability to customize your character in the game and more than one name per account. Being able to choose clan or team specific camo patterns would be a nice way to make it feel more unique.

[FeRaL]

They're working on it but it's being kept real hush hush. I read things here and there about it like that the levels will be 10x larger and will support 64 on 64 multiplayer. I think if DICE really wants to win back the crown for contemporary warfare they need to make one BIG change:

Mission based scenerios.


It seems like every game is either last man standing or capture the flag. How about "blow up a dam" or "infultrate the base"? I want more varity.

I like your ideas here.

[ckthecerealkiller]

I will say COD MW is a "good" game but I won't find myself buying it anytime soon. Lack of dedicated servers, only 5ish hours of single player, and everything they are intentionally leaving out of the PC version makes me too angry to play the game. Activision really needs to change how it's publishing games. Every popular game they have published lately is screwed up the game in some stupid way.

Mission based/decision based scenarios are the MAIN thing that makes a single player game IMO. It is prevelent in so many great games I don't think someone under EA could pull it off with BF though. All of my favorite FPS's have that in the single player, HL2, Far Cry (PC suxors too much for crysis), COD 1, and even smaller games like Delta Force seem to get it.

[Skippman]

I used to think the same thing about mission based scenerios. That was until I played Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead totally changed everything as it IS a scenerio based FPS that's fun to play.

[bhelms]

I love BF2 so much and can't wait for the day that BF3 comes out.

I never played Bad Company though, and Bad Company 2 is looking pretty sweet. I for sure will be getting it.
What really are the differences between BF2/3 and Bad Company though? From what I've seen it doesn't look too much different. But Like I said, I didn't ever really play BC1.

Sorry for the thread re-direction

[Skippman]

From what I've played BF Bad Company is more like Medal of Honor or COD in that it's more about the experience and less about the realism where-as BF2 is designed more as a "contemporary warfare simulator". I guess the best example I could give would be like comparing Team Fortress 2 to Counter Strike.

[bigblockmatt]

BF42 was what got into the computer/gaming world. they should give the bf42 game a total revamp and update it. i loved that game!

[Keean]

BF1942 was an awesome game, but I think todays gamers have been somewhat "tainted" if you will with more modern warfare games. You've got all these kids that hear about the war on T.V. and some want to be a part of it, but since they're too young they get it in the next best way, through games.

I bet if in 5 years you asked people in the USMC how many of them joined because of Call of Duty: 4 you would get a huge number. Not bashing the Corps now, I'm in the Army and we all fight the same war here, but I'm just saying. We're getting such a huge number of kids that join the services because of an altered sense of what the military is from what they see in video games.

That being said, that is also a reason why I think most games that are based on WWII are going to be in a decline for a little bit, because of a lack of interest in history and the allure of possibly "making" history with these games. Just my two cents though, hehe.

[Skippman]

I think it's just WWII as a game setting has been run into the ground. As the last "clean" war we fought the gaming industry tended to focus on it because who doesn't hate Nazi's?

Now, with contemporary warfare games you have factions like Muslim extremists who get upset over a cartoon done in jest much less a video game. I think the Cold War era could have provided some interesting scenarios for game play. Could have done a whole series of secret battles that no one ever knew about. I'd like to see some fighting in the frozen north like they did with Operation Anchorage. Or how about some temperate forest action. Why does everything have to be a "lush, dense jungle"?