News

Modern Warfare 3 hits $1B sales mark, Elite hits 1M premium subscribers
Posted: 12.12.2011 17:12 by JonahFalcon Comments: 8
Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 passed the $1 billion sales plateau on the 8th November 2011. The publisher was pleased to note that the mark was achieved in just 16 days, beating out James Cameron's blockbuster 3D film Avatar's mark of 17 days.

Activision also pointed out that the motion picture industry as a whole is down from last year by 4%, while the press release gloated, "Call of Duty is now amongst that rarified group of sustained franchises like "Star Wars", "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings" and the National Football League (NFL) that attract or engage tens of millions of people every year or every new release." The publisher then stated over six million people have registered to Call of Duty: Elite, with over a million signing up for a premium subscription, noting it took Netflix, Hulu Plus, Sirius XM and Xbox LIVE a year before each of those services reached one million paid subscribers.

Finally, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg beamed, "Call of Duty has become that rare entertainment franchise that transcends its own genre. Core gamers love it, as our stellar reviews show. But every year, new people are drawn into Call of Duty. And while the franchise continues to set records, our fans still seem to want more, demonstrated by our record setting start on Call of Duty Elite. We are committed to helping everyone connect, compete and improve their game, Call of Duty style."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released on the 8th November, 2011 on multiple platforms and sold $775M worth of units in a mere 5 days.

Comments

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Dec 12, 2011
SirRoderick
Where the hell are all these people coming from!?

I hardly know anyone that plays that dribble.
By Maffia01 (SI Veteran Newbie) on Dec 12, 2011
Maffia01
Surely the main point for a subscription service is the retention of customers, not how quickly you hit a specified number?

Or am I missing the point?
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Dec 12, 2011
djole381
It's just a marketing trick, Activision is just manipulating the numbers in order to attract more people. In case I'm wrong, God help us all.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Dec 12, 2011
JonahFalcon
No, the NPD confirmed those numbers.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Dec 13, 2011
herodotus
I picked up the PC copy (cheap) and PS3 version for my son for his birthday, but I've been playing the PC SP myself (wouldn't go near the MP - too twitchy for me). It's a damn hoot, especially compared to the dreadful "BF3" SP Campaign (if you can call it that - more of a tech run of the new engine). Tried "Survival", but the limited FoV makes it very hard.
Activision will keep pumping out these yearly installments, probably years after the franchise has obviously died. They tend to do that.

In a perfect world (not the F2P Publisher's one) "MW3" would have sported a new graphics engine, new warfare scenario and much overhauled gameplay (and lost the annual revenue in the process, with a couple more years in development).
"BF3" would have stayed true to it's roots and remained MP only, with SP+bots as a handy practice arena. No Battlecrap (competing with Acti), just a normal game with many happy and adoring fans. It too would not have launched early, leaving console and PC gamers struggling with the true beta passed off as Retail.

Gripe over. Now, back to "BF3" as I seem to be connecting fine today:)
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Dec 13, 2011
nocutius
Some people really let themselves get milked. A game makes a billion dollars and people are still willing to pay extra to "cover the server costs" :(.
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Dec 13, 2011
djole381
It's because of people like that the developers keep making crappy games and are ruining gaming altogether.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Dec 13, 2011
herodotus
Well gamers are their own worst enemy when it comes to forcing Publishers to get off their backsides and get their in-house Devs to work on something new. Keep paying for the same game, re-painted and what do you expect?
Then again, I believe "CoD" gamers are satisfied with what they have gotten, and the next generation of gamers know no better.