Black Ops 2 destroys Modern Warfare 3’s launch day record

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   November 19th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Calls in a C-130, Pavelow and Nuke on its predecessor’s record to become the biggest entertainment launch of 2012 and history as well. Activision now looking for a place to put all that money.

The dust is only just starting to settle following the explosive release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The game is the direct sequel to Treyarch’s previous instalment in the series, Black Ops, and takes place in a near future setting where most of the fighting is done by unmanned drones and bots.

Modern Warfare 3 was the previous entry in the insanely successful Call of Duty franchise, which alternates its development between Infinity Ward and Treyarch with the former handling the Modern Warfare series exclusively.

Infinity Ward’s game shattered records last year when it recorded over $400-million in sales on its first day before going on to gross over $775 million on the five day mark and ultimately the $1-billion in less than a month; now however, it seems to be the turn of Black Ops 2, which has already shattered the first record as it managed to accumulate over $500-million in revenue on its first day of release.

The game is showing few signs of stopping and many expect it to break every other record currently held by the Modern Warfare game. Activision earlier stated that pre-release sales of the game were notably higher than those of Modern Warfare 3.

Eric Hirshberg, the head of Publishing, took the opportunity to promote the Call of Duty brand as a whole and explained why he thought the games sold so well by explaining that it was not a game that people bought but more of an experience.

“Call of Duty has become more than a product people buy, it’s a brand people buy into.”

At the same time, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, also expressed his satisfaction with the game’s launch day sales  when he said, “With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row.”

Its only a matter of time now before the world finds out whether or not Black Ops 2 can emulate and surpass the benchmark for the series set by the previous game.

The Call of Duty games have been the biggest launches in the industry for the past four years and any fears that the series was slowly stagnating have been put to bed with Treyarch’s latest effort.

One might as well put a Call of Duty sticker on some old tires and expect a nice sum for them as it seems anything with the series name on them is sure to sell well.