Gamers answer the latest Call of Duty in droves, push first-person shooter's worldwide sales total to 10 digits in two months.
Just over two months ago, Activision released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in stores around the world. It instantly became a best-seller, garnering an estimated $550 million in its first five days and dominating the November sales charts.
The game continued to sell well throughout the holiday season, as today Activision announced that its own estimates have the game's cumulative sales total breaking the $1 billion mark in just two months on shelves. To put that into some perspective, that's nearly as much as the entire US console and handheld gaming industry brought in for the month of October. That's also more than Capcom made for its last fiscal year, which saw the releases of blockbusters like Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5.
The success of Modern Warfare 2 may be overwhelming, but it's far from unexpected, as the Call of Duty franchise has seen considerable growth in recent years. In 2007, Infinity Ward rebooted the World War II-centric series it created with its contemporary-set Modern Warfare, a game that has now sold more than 14 million units. Activision's Treyarch studio returned to the WWII era with World at War in 2008, a game that used the same engine as Modern Warfare and achieved sales in excess of 11 million.
Modern Warfare 2 isn't the first Activision game to surpass $1 billion at retail. The publisher's 2007 release Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock made it to the milestone as well, but only after 14 months on shelves. It took the competing Rock Band franchise 15 months to hit the $1 billion mark, including everything from $200 band kits to $2 downloadable songs.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Modern Warfare 3 is currently in development by Infinity Ward with assisted development from Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. All in all, Modern Warfare 3 needs 3 development teams to get the job done; including all the MW3 weapons, perks, etc.
the maps is not as good as first modern warfare, too much recycle not much improvement. I had less fun play this then first modern warare.
i put my weight on trey arch to make a better game i always liked them more but i hope they can take out all the useless additions
so where are the dedicated servers im sick of pvp host advantage and lag get old fast. didnt out sell new super mario bros wii on a single platform tho lol
I assumed this would happen sooner than later. It's a shame that recycling the same old crap and churning out sequels is what makes money in the video game industry. You've got people trying something new and completely original (the Borderlands developers) and people adding depth to their previous games (the Assassin's Creed II or Uncharted 2 devs), then you've got developers who play it safe and recycle the same engine, add some plot twists to the story, and add some perks to their multiplayer modes rather than trying to reinvent much of anything. I don't know about anyone else, but MW2 was a pretty big disappointment for me. Special Ops is probably the most significant addition to the game, but other than that, it felt more or less the exact same game, with a cliched action story similar to an episode of 24, and a multiplayer with totally unnecessary and unbalanced weapons and perks (Model 1887, anyone?). I went right back to the original MW after a couple weeks of playing this. Don't get me wrong, MW2 is a decent game. Obviously when you rip the engine from the game that changed competitive multiplayer, it's hard to completely screw everything up. But there were so many things that couldve been done without. They added way too much crap and not enough interesting stuff. It's unfortunate MW2 is the best selling game, and not the talent behind Uncharted, or Assassin's Creed, or Borderlands, or Batman. It's the true innovators that deserve to hit the billion dollar mark.
@ slowdrum13 I second that. The game is garbage. Sad because I enjoyed the first one for what it was.
Be weary... any game or franchise in general that rolls over the $1B mark seems to lose its fire and passion. Does that mean the games get worse? Certainly not, but looking through the other recent 1B numbers and series that have hit the mark in the past year, all seem to have peaked or likely peaked. Anything selling this high is hyped for its next version the day of the current release, and it's just insanely hard to meet ridiculous expectations repeatedly. Other series that have had mass-sellers in recent years but seem to have sputtered from overhype: Guitar Hero, Need for Speed, GTA, Rockband (not quite as much as GH), Halo, Devil May Cry, Madden. I even play most of those, but the flame just doesn't burn like it used to.
Well that money is just gonna keep pouring in by Spring when the new map packs are released.
Who would've thought this game that originated on the PC would be a console power house. I'm actually shocked the COD franchise has lasted as long as it has.
WTF!!! 1 Billion dollars in 2 months, thats amazing. I know they would probably never do it but Activision should thank everyone for supporting and buying MW2 by giving us some free DLC. Preferably some Multi-player maps haha.
"TrueIori Posted Jan 17, 2010 7:01 am GMT ... while Gems like demon souls sit on the selves collecting dust , sad. Don't get me wrong the game far from crap but i not the second coming of FPS, i play Counter Strike , Battlefield 2 , Team Fortress, before i play MW2 hell i play the First MW over this My point is ,as others have already said wonder why there never any new IP ? You don't got to look too far for your answer." wat?
I know hearing this many people will not like this but here it goes. I am pretty glad that big name titles decided to release thier games next year in fear of MW2. If they did release those said games this year. It would have been crushed by the sales of MW2. AC2 sold surprisingly very well 6 million units but I am afraid the rest titles wouldnt fare well. Anyways the end result we are getting the biggest tiltes of 2010 early in the year.
I want move stealthy sniper missions like "All Ghillied Up" in the first Modern Warfare.
oh and one other thing lol. i don't agree that the series has been done to death, because as far as i'm concerned there are only two call of duty games. the other ones might as well not exist.
and on an unrelated note, anyone who reads this, don't buy army of two: the 40th day. i bought it for the co op but the matchmaking system is so broken its impossible to get a game. a complete waste of money. be warned
i really hope they release all the "classic" cod4 maps as dlc for mw2. how sick would that be to play the old maps with all the new attachments and killstreaks?
It deserves every penny of it. I've been gaming for over twenty years and this is the best single player I've ever played. And of course the multiplayer steps all over other games (except rsv2, also awesome). the people saying its overrated/not good are just little teenagers who want to be rebellious and different. the only thing that could have been improved is adding matchmaking to spec ops. its too much of a pain to invite someone off your buddy list. can't wait till mw3 to see how the story raps up. but not too soon so iw will keep the multiplayer community happy. don't want to pull a valve and screw your base like with left for dead 2
MW2 only sold well due to hype and because of CoD 4. I'm guessing that MW3 will be a fanboy only game.
I just bought MGO instead. Spoiler alert! It comes with a good story mode... well so I've heard. This game received the Halo 2 treatment "faster, stronger, balanced, one claymore?" which was also obviously well received. MAG looked promising from the beta, however I am skeptic about the amount of content in the game considering how the skill tree seemed mostly complete yet sorta empty. Also each faction having one level per game type, still making the amount of levels a high 12 if thats the rule, for there to be multiple levels on a game type. Never know how that'll turn out til you play it. Still gotta say MGO was worth the total 35 bucks or so I payed for it, the game and expansion, just saying.
amazing what millions of dollars in hype will do to a mediocre game. All this game did was take the original and add some of the Mods from the PC community. That, and take every way of modifying the game away... why the lemmings bought this game is beyond me.
I need Hardcore players for cod mw2 clan wars only the ones fr manchester,uk if u want to.. sign up at gamebattles.com then add me as a friend (jackchan) later ill invite u to my clan. make sure that u type ur username as ur PSN ID and put it in psn info aswell ok. do it ASAP peace [0161] clan jackchan
Beyond Good and Evil that game was innovative and unique..critically acclaimed and all and it flopped commercially. I am still wondering as to why.
... while Gems like demon souls sit on the selves collecting dust , sad. Don't get me wrong the game far from crap but i not the second coming of FPS, i play Counter Strike , Battlefield 2 , Team Fortress, before i play MW2 hell i play the First MW over this My point is ,as others have already said wonder why there never any new IP ? You don't got to look too far for your answer.
@Dredwulf Oh man, someone has model 1187 and noobtube and lightweight. Oh man> How will I ever do it. Oh yeah. Ill snipe him. Or I know! Ill switch to the acr, m4al1 ,or fal and just try to get him at long range. That was hard.
People - forever proving that interesting new titles that dare to try new things will be pitched in the bargain bin for a rehash of something everyone already played before with a big spoonful of hype and fanboyism. Halo you have been de-throned as the most overhyped and overplayed FPS, MW2 here is your crown...
@JohnIsGodd only a noobtubing, camping, Javelin Glitch user would say something like that "The game is perfectly balanced" It's perfectly balanced to have marathon pro lightweight then akimbo 1887 shotguns and run up to people and unrealistically blast them in the face from half a map away..yeah..perfectly balanced..noob.
Lol more reason for companies to not make and publish new ip games. Instead of this bs milked series cycle.
One billion in sales? Not surprising...not at all. If every game coming out this year hadn't got pushed back because of this garbage, we would be enjoying some good new IPs and actual sequels. 2009 was a horrible year for games and it's only redeeming game for me was Borderlands. As for any other gamer, they could say the same for games like Demon Souls, Uncharted 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2....
That's a lot of Rupees. I still think the original was better, maybe cause it was fresh? Stalled out at level 61 on MW 2. It doesn't keep me coming back like the first one.
I don't know why everyone here is preaching overhype. I mean Im pretty sure if the game was that bad then the kids that picked it up at midnight would have sold them all back and told everyone else in the world not to get it and the game would have made no sales. Personally I enjoy the game. Its fun. The campaign was interesting, the multiplayer is good and I find it balanced. I have never come across a situation where it was "IMBA" As some of you claim. Perhaps you should just play the game more and learn the maps. If you just talk about how bad it is then you obviously have not committed yourself to playing very much. I will agree however, that the maps are somewhat of a letdown, They dont have the same feeling as MW, but they are different nonetheless. Anyway. My point is. Stop hating.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is good but the original Modern Warfare felt more addictive and the maps were better.
@Verticalhurt Call of duty does does do some ridulous things. In 5, I got bit by a dog through a train. I was on one side, the dog was on another. On castle, at the statue on the top of the hill, I was on one side and the dog on the other. The dog had to go right or left of the statue to get me. No... it decided to go through the statue, and got me that way. Things like that dont even make me mad anymore. I just laugh at it now, because its call of duty, its cheapness like spawning in grenades, in dogs mouths, right in front of an enemy, without things like that it just wouldnt be a true call of duty game,lol.
Not surprised it hti this level with the hype behind it it was a decent game but nothing fantastic like what I first thought but when im getting killed because of glitchs not because of a players skill that is just crap Im also sick of the little kids that are probaly five playing it mostly cause they piss me of so much.... Oh congratulations you found a glitch that allows you to kill someone from a postion that no one else can reach without that dumb glitch oh you sure should me that your good you cheating camping prick but I digrees besides that it was a decent game
played the game its the same crap like all of the others i have more fun playing the first mw , story line is crap , multiplayer is okay but the same thing as other im done paying for COD hope others make the same decision
You know why this game hit that level? Because people didn't know how crap it was before they bought it. You can thank COD4 for the success for MW2 thats for sure. And if I get stabbed through a wall one more time I'm deleting this game and writing off COD for good. Host migration is horse SH&T simply because you are relying on someone else to host the game all the time from home. This could be and more then likely is some 12 year old using him mothers pc. And what the hells the deal with the kids in the game? IT'S 18 plus? The Knife is retarded...PERIOD. There is no way you can disarm a sentinel by stabbing it with one blow when it takes to nades and a full clip to do it. The shield is stupid simply because I wouldn't die in real life if you dumped me with plastic twice. AND...3 full clips from an AK47 and nade launchers may not wreck the shield (in lala land) but the player should without a doubt be DEAD! I HATE YOU ALL IWNET blows, VAC doesn't do anything and the cheating is just as bad in MW2 as it was and still is in CS. Steam is garbage and I hate you all.
@ atc-fanatic I have to agree with you, I feel like COD4 was the last game Infinity Ward really cared about. MW2 is such a disaster, it should set a fine example to other developers that you NEED to have a beta for multiplayer games. Especially one of this scale.
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