Modern Warfare 2 was a hugely popular game. It made a billion dollars and fueled Activision’s mammoth 2009 earnings, but the publisher doesn’t think this year’s tentatively-named Call of Duty 7 will outperform MW2.
Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, speaking with investors earlier today said this year’s Treyarch-developed Call of Duty title won’t outsell Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2.
But wait a second. You might be thinking Infinity Ward is a more capable studio and how could Treyarch even think it could bring make a greater game than those gods of game development.
But wait yet another second. The reason Modern Warfare 2 sold so very well, is partly due to the fact that other publisher purposely withheld their games to later dates to steer clear from the MW2 media and sales blitz.
So, with many, many AAA releases scheduled for 2010, not afraid of the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty 7, Activision believes the game won’t sell as well.
“We’ve consistently grown the Call Of Duty franchise revenues year-on-year for the past seven years. We expect to continue our strategy of annualising this franchise opportunity. At the same time, we recognise that Modern Warfare 2 was an unprecedented success, driven in part by the game quality, our retail and marketing execution, and by the relatively friendly competitive environment [at Christmas].
“We expect to have a more difficult competitive environment this year, and therefore we’ve not planned on the same level of success [with 2010’s CoD title] as we enjoyed in 2009. That said, we’re still bullish on this year’s title, and we do see upside potential if we execute well by engaging the much larger set of consumers who were introduced to the Call Of Duty franchise in 2009.”
Smart men and women these Activision folk, eh?
Source: CVG
Leave a Reply