It’s been five years since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed the face of gaming, and the series’ success still hasn’t let up. Black Ops 2 was released to not only critical praise, but stronger sales than any of its predecessors.
Activision confirmed today that in its first twenty four hours, Black Ops 2 was able to rake in more than $500 million dollars in revenue. This smashes the record set by Modern Warfare 3, which was able to bring in 775 million in just five days. While series critics believe the games have began to stagnate, it’s clear that consumers are still enjoying the yearly releases.
Making the numbers even more jaw dropping, is that these are sell-through numbers. That $500 million represents numbers from income from copies sold at retail, not from Activision to stores. These numbers are only sure to grow this Sunday, when Black Ops 2 releases on the Wii U. At the current moment, Activision’s Bobby Kotick claims that “life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars.”
However, there is still the matter of Black Ops’ Vita counter part, Black Ops: Declassified. The Vita title - handled by Resistance: Burning Skies developer Nihilistic Software - was not mentioned in Activision’s press release. The game was long hyped by both Sony and the PlayStation community, and even came in a bundle with the Vita and a 4GB memory card. It’s obvious that the title wouldn’t perform as well as its console counterparts, however, it is interesting that Activision wouldn’t even mention it.
Activision’s not done with Black Ops 2; however, and has even more content planned to be coming down the line. Earlier this month they announced that Call of Duty: Elite would be free to all users, and a fifty dollar season pass would be made available for all upcoming downloadable content. There’s even the likelyhood that Black Ops 2 will receive new game modes, according to Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar.
Throughout the course of 2012, Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 3 was regularly updated with new game modes. The most prominent being Face Off, a free add-on that put a focus on smaller teams. The game also received numerous community modes, such as Drop Zone and the ever popular Infected mode.
“Absolutely. Although we haven’t released any details, or even decided which ones, nor could I give you a count or time, we have several games modes we play in development.”
It will be interesting to see how Black Ops 2 fairs in the coming months. While the game has obviously been met with tremendous success, there are still a few hurdles it needs to overcome. The PS3 version in particular is suffering from server issues, which make it difficult for players to even get in a game. Sales themselves could prove to be problematic, as while Modern Warfare 3 also had a strong launch, monthly sales weren’t as strong as its predecessor. Whether or not Black Ops 2 has better legs remains to be seen, but after Tuesday’s launch, it’s clear Activision isn’t done with the Call of Duty brand.
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Source: Reddit (via CVG)
