Pacific Crest's Evan Wilson raises holiday quarter estimate for next Call of Duty game, but still predicts it to fall far short of Modern Warfare 2's sales pace.
Green and red may be the traditional Christmas colors, but this year's dominant shade could be black. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson today boosted his Call of Duty: Black Ops sales estimate for the holiday quarter to 12 million copies, up from his previous projection of 10 million.
Citing his firm's retail contacts, Wilson said the preorders for the Treyarch-developed Black Ops are outpacing those of last year's megahit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The sentiment echoed comments from Activision CEO Robert Kotick made at a pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo analysts' meeting last month.
But where Kotick stressed that each entry in the Call of Duty series had outperformed its predecessor, Wilson believes Black Ops will break that trend. Wilson estimated that Modern Warfare 2 sold 16 million copies in the holiday quarter of 2009 and called that number unachievable for Black Ops, "due to competition, weaker marketing, and the Infinity Ward situation."
Infinity Ward, the studio that created the Call of Duty series and developed Modern Warfare 2, has been a center of turmoil within Activision this year. The problems surfaced with the March firings of cofounders Jason West and Vince Zampella. After their dismissal, the pair sued the company, which sued back, alleging they had been plotting to start a new studio with chief Activision rival Electronic Arts. Within weeks, West and Zampella did just that. A number of Infinity Ward developers jumped ship to join the new studio, dubbed Respawn Entertainment, while others simply resigned.
Set for release November 9, Black Ops will depict a number of Cold War-era covert operations in countries like Russia, Vietnam, and Cuba. The game represents new territory for the series, which has previously focused on more familiar World War II and modern-day settings.
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.
With MW3, Infinity Ward announced that they will fix bugs and glitches faster! The weaponry and perks in Call of Duty: MW3 will also be more balanced and the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will have a working party chat system. Infinity Ward has also revealed that it has revamped the entire killstreak reward system!
MW2 sold about 20 Mil or more.... Infinity Ward makes better CoD games on average... but Black Ops will most likely sell 12 million or more.. Cant wait to pick it up at release!
@wellrod Mw2 was made by Infinity Ward not Treyarch. So your the dumb. Treyarch made World at War and the campaign was great not to mention Nazi zombies.
Black ops won't sell as much copys as mw2 because the people who bought mw2 aren't going to go from a modern war fps to a cold war era fps.
Nah i dont think so , it would be like world at war , not too much sells . For me, this yeat call of duty wont be like mw2 that sells like millions of copys...
cold war should be more interesting than repeated fictional settings in the middle east
Black Ops is coming out right before the christmas season, stores should stock up big on that game
Black ops seems like like a fresh new take, although its not. Should do pretty well in sales for all COD fans.
So i'm guessing im right in saying that all they need to do these days to sell games is slap on the Call of duty brand name and every idiot under the sun will buy it saying "I just bought call of duty im amazing and special". Yes they will sell 12 million + because that many people are idiots willing to buy crap under developed games. The story mode was like a couple of hours long in Modern warfare and modern warfare 2. Didn't know there were that many charitable people out there supporting the Trey arc trust fund donating money (buying the game) to get nothing decent in return. May as well give the money too an actual charity. Have Fun ^^
I will buy this, but it will prob b the last CoD i eva buy. If it IS good, i'll still only buy treyarc games after the abomination that was MW2!!
I know that treyarch is going to please me with black ops because they made my favorite cod games, cod 3 and cod 5. They use their imagination and come up with with cool stuff like nazi zombies. all IW could come up with was the very boring spec ops which was just like another campaign in MW2. EA is also a great and I will be planning on buying MoH and COD BO
skip this year like i did with WaW. @Rocker6 I wouldn't say they take care of there fans, just long enough till the next game comes out in which they stop patching online so they'll buy the next game.
I will give my money to EA.Now they care for their fans.BC2 Vietnam and MoH will be great.Black ops will be just another COD,only in different setting,it may have a good sell,but MoH will have better.
I have a lot of hope for Black Ops, due to the fact that Treyarch listens to the community
@cjasko94 - Why buy it if you all ready know if it's going to get boring in a few months? (Just because your friends are buying it, definitely doesn't mean you have to. Save your money for something worth while :) There will be another game that they will buy, or most likely what will happen will be that they will continue to play Modern Warfare2 instead)
@SoCkPuPP3t687 - I'm sold! (really though, I was laughing really hard at that, good job!) One thing's for sure, I'm not going to be make it any higher. I'm getting tired of the same "war" games over and over.
of course the game will sell millions...its COD everyone gets it, and then their friends have to as well....its gonna be a great game so its pretty safe bet for the holiday shooters
Forget this game, the game that is going to kill all games coming in fall 2012 is the Modern Warfare Bake Me a Cake game for the Wii. That game is going to be hot. I heard when you reach level 30 you unlock this perk call the Martha Stewart baking sheet that decreases ur baking time by 15 minutes. CANT WAIT MAN
The only reason I'm interested in Call of Duty: Black Ops is because it is set during Vietnam. I don't think I have any games with that setting. Other than that, I'm expecting more or less of the same gameplay-wise.
@gbrading but they have the pre orders to back it up, and the cod fan base is getting bigger with mw2 last year. also black ops is going on the wii too.
i'll be getting it, all my friends are, zombies etc. probably get old after a month or 2 though.
MW is the same rehash of COD4 where it all began. Kotick is just milking your pockets. Treyach is his dog. This is what gaming looks like from a purely commercial standpoint -> all $$$ & no heart into the game.
not getting it at launch but might get it for Christmas for zombies with friends ! cod is just getting old for me !! bring on some new games !!
Now that I think about it, Activision could actually base a game around the whole Infinity Ward fiasco. Apparently Activision actually enforced a (quote) 'police state' with guards at the doors and also subjected employees to 'secret interrogations'. I'm thinking junior programmer finds assault rifle in cupboard, embarks on mission to get revenge on Kotick. Damn sight more intelligent than Modern Warfare 2, anyway...
modern warfare 2 is the last CoD series that actually breaks anything before in my opinion...this new game...wat its called again?? black ops???i dont think it will outperform them....beside..im getting bored of playing the same series over and over again..its like FIFA being release every single year....they should follow Rockstar steps...release a series after the previous one cools down a bit..might take two years or more but heck...you get a perfect game rather than a 'mass' production one..
LOL LOL LOL this GAMESPOT report ......is FUNNY....with the new HALO reach an BRAND NEW graphics TO add....I JUST CANT SEE THIS happening nice joke thou (-; *wink*
I cant wait to stare down the sight and camp with my automatic shotgun, claymores, and scavenger pro perk.
I've loved the Special Ops in MW2, but I can't wait to get back to Nazi Zombies (Cold War Zombies? Viet Zombies?). @Sanel_aka_Sano: A VP let it slip that there WILL be Zombies again, so even though we haven't read press about it, it is a certainty. Can't wait to see what they did with that innovative mode. Treyarch out-horded Gears. Only ODST's Firefight was better. I played MUCH more CoD: WaW than I did either of the MW titles. Can't wait!
It'l sell 12 million but the game will probably end up being terrible. That's how every popular shooter series is. (FFS, you remember Halo 3, don't deny what happened there.)
everybody says they hate Activision but on the launch everyone who posted an angry comment will surely buy it on the first day(that could include me)
Crazy how Activision turns all their popular franchises into yearly rehashes with little innovation and they still sell. Theyre going to milk this franchise until Call of Duty is as irrelevant as Tony Hawk.
I didnt like W@W's online gameplay but its story mode was awesome and so was nazi zombies. Mw2's online gameplay was great except for the grenade launcher and commando perk but its story mode was short and bad. Im looking forward to Black Ops because the story line looks great and they might bring back zombies.
Kotick Needs to go. Back to Topic: I have to say, I have way more respect for Treyarch than IW now. They actually care what gamers want. Even in one interview one of the lead designers stressed Dedicated Servers. Although the COD franchise to me is dead, I'll definitely give Black Ops a try for my Wii.
So activision, when can we expect the call of duty breakfast cereal, coffee mug, and clothing lines? Oh wait, mugs are covered already. http://www.cafepress.ca/+duty_calls_mug,233961528
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