Activision Doesn't Expect New CoD To Top Black Ops
Outside of the mammoth Call of Duty series, things have been pretty rough for Activision lately.
Amidst big cancellations - including the disbanding of the once-invaluable Guitar Hero business unit - Activision now says they have "lower expectations" for this year's Call of Duty installment, which might be Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 3. According to what Activision Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tippl said during a conference call, this is mostly due to the unbelievable popularity of Black Ops. Said Tippl:
"In order to be prudent and given the enormous success of Black Ops, at this point, we have still planned a retail release in the fall below the levels of success that we have seen with Black Ops. So that's very consistent with how we treated that last year."
It's "consistent" because the publisher said the same about Treyarch's production; they didn't expect it to top Modern Warfare 2, so the conservative predictions continue. Of course, Black Ops did end up topping MW2 as the most popular video game of the generation, outselling MW2 by 16% its first week and raking in more money and sales in the first 4-6 weeks. Of course, and as you might expect, the conservative estimate doesn't mean Activision isn't confident.
"Now having said all of that, I think we have a blockbuster retail release lined up for the fall that we are extremely excited about, which will be hopefully again the biggest game of the year."
Well, obviously. But we still have to get official confirmation on MW3, and whatever that new CoD title is that is in development at Sledgehammer Games. Who's up for two Calls of Duty in 2011...?
Tags: activision, call of duty, black ops, modern warfare 3
2/10/2011 10:01:42 AM Ben Dutka
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Comments (62 posts)
shootu
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 @ 10:54:07 PM
maxpontiac
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 10:22:31 AM
Reply
Killa Tequilla
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 10:24:59 AM
Reply
CrusaderForever
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 10:56:46 AM
Underdog15
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 11:59:17 AM
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:09:33 PM
CrusaderForever
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 4:02:11 PM
Dancemachine55
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 12:38:42 AM
Don't you think that your money is being wasted in a way, buying the same type of game with the same mechanics, graphics and style of gameplay every year?
At least Battlefield differs quite vastly from Call of Duty, Killzone is completely different altogether.
Honestly, I found Black Ops and MW2 to be no more enjoyable than CoD4. Almost exactly the same to me.
I only got the other CoDs simply cos it was all my friends played, and I have one CoD for each system, MW2 on PS3, Black Ops on 360, so my split screen death match parties with friends are covered.
I can see why there are fans out there, it is certainly polished and very intuitive with controls. I just don't see much changing between MW2 and MW3 personally.
Feel free to enlighten me with your opinion on why new CoD games continue to rock, as I just don't see any difference between this and CoD4 apart from a few new guns.
CrusaderForever
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 11:01:17 AM
FM23
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 2:06:00 PM
With that said...PS3 exclusives all the way.
shootu
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 @ 10:57:13 PM
slugga_status
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 10:53:57 AM
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I think they're factoring in that there are many shooters coming out and a handful of them are exclusive to the PS3 which could have some form of impact on the sales.
Last edited by slugga_status on 2/10/2011 11:28:07 AM
CrusaderForever
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 11:05:39 AM
Alienange
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:47:34 PM
slugga_status
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 1:42:20 PM
I'm not blaming the 360 at all..Not sure were you got that from..All I'm saying is that the 360 fan base is far more loyal to the franchise. All one has to do is go to the MP. In my experience when I played it on 360 there were MILLIONS of people online literally as indicated in the globe section of the lobby. I log in to the PS3 during prime hours and only 600k to 900k are online. Not talking about sales I'm talking about people who play the game.
@ Crusader
I'll probably be the same way man. I just honestly can't keep getting CoD to play with friends. Thankfully I can play KZ3, MAG, and mix in some Black Ops until Resistance and Uncharted come out
Ole_Gunner
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 11:32:49 AM
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Sure Black Ops was cool but man,can't we get a break or something innovative Kotick??
Underdog15
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:06:52 PM
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If they made it PS3 exclusive, it'd score an average of 7 or 6.5. But... make that exact same game multiplat and give it the CoD title? Boom.... 9.0+ scores and multi-million sales!
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:12:27 PM
And I agree with you on scores, could you imagine a game as poorly made as that as an exclusive to PS3? It would be massacred in the reviews.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 2/10/2011 12:13:31 PM
FM23
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 2:18:13 PM
CoD stories suck, the storytelling is beyond terrible, and I never a true understanding of the story. Black Ops did a better job at storytelling than confusing MW2, but it was still terrible. And CoD looks cheap, I mean very cheap. Those 9's and 10's are all based on outdated memories of CoD4 which I never played. But I played MW2 and Black Ops and I always walk away confused, but I had a blast. CoD's are fun, I will give them that, but critics need to give credit where credit is due and stop choosing which games to critique one way so they can critique another blindly. KZ3 review complaints seem like the missing complaints that are better versed for CoD reviews.
johnld
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 5:12:36 PM
i think they actually succeeded in trying to distance themselves from call of duty and activision, which could be seen as a blow against activision in their court battle. i mean, other than the regular edition and gamediscs (which noone really looks at), call of duty and activision were being phased out. the hardened and prestige edition didnt have the words call of duty anywhere, i dont remember if it had activision on it. the activision logo on start up was also gone, all they had is that paragraph. i also dont remember the call of duty tag on the main menu either.
Lord carlos
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:14:20 PM
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I really enjoyed the story in the modern warfare series,i know alot of folks give the campaign in MW2 a hard time(i was on the edge of my seat the whole time & loved it)but treyarch cant seem to do a story thats actually happens in real time,its all flashback crap.
And whats with all the noise? like i'm trying(very funking hard)to get into the story but there's all these unnecessary loud noises that rips me out off the emersion,that coupled with the second rate story telling killed the game for me.
With infinity ward pretty much half dead i'm afraid MW3 will be a big pile of bantha droppings which is a shame cause cpt.price is hard core.
PS.i'm not really into the online aspect of fps,i prefer the campaigns(co op hell yeah)
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:18:41 PM
Alienange
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 1:00:03 PM
Lord carlos
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 1:02:00 PM
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 2:45:29 PM
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 12:16:00 PM
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Have a look around the net, I see very few positive comments concerning the milking of this franchise by Kotex and Co.
crunchy_nut_kid
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 2:10:45 AM
Snorge
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 3:50:04 PM
Madden, NBA2K, NBA Live, Fifa, NHL, and every other sports game out there IMO. Call of Duty can fall in this category as well.
slugga_status
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 7:49:22 AM
BTW the saying goes if it isn't broke don't fix it. Uncharted didn't do much differently then the first and people bought it. God of War has had the same gameplay the majority of that series...argument goes both ways easily..
Snorge
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 10:40:04 AM
All the examples you made of being the same kind of game doesnt make much sense. Uncharted and God of War didnt have yearly iterations. Thats my whole point.
I understand the NBA2K series has come a long way since it started but I would hope that any game would evolve after being on the market for so long. Its the yearly releases with SLIGHTLY better graphics, updated rosters, and maybe some minor AI and animation upgrades. Why not send out updates or patches instead of releasing pretty much the same game every year? If MAG can do it, why cant the sports industry (game-wise)?
*See MAG improvements from the start to current to get reference*
Not tryna bash sports games, (we need them) but come on, how would you like them to come out with Killzone every year with silightly more stuff added for the same asking price as last year. Count me out!
slugga_status
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 11:05:50 AM
It makes complete sense. Doesn't matter if it's yearly or not if you're essentially receiving the same thing. I'm sorry but you can't simply send out a update for "slightly better graphics, AI, and animation."
MAG is completely different then a sports game. They didn't upgrade animations or anything like that. They tweeked coding within the game. Fact is, if it comes yearly or not you're still getting the same thing that you say sports games do. God of War may have been spread out but it's essentially the same game. Killzone is the same game. Even reaching back to Mario which was the same as well as Sonic and Crash Bandicoot. You're essentially using the same type of gameplay no matter what you play..It's really about if you like the game/franchise/devs or not...
btw..you'd buy Killzone yearly if they put it out like that...
mid10smaradoarg
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 4:16:32 PM
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Lairfan
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 4:59:43 PM
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But I'm thinking that even if that happens, after this CoD more people will start to see just how far the series has fallen and start to abandon it.
Hell, I think we've even forgotten the meaning of the term "call of duty" cause we've said it so much. It used to stand for the ideals of answering a call to arms to defend your country, and the great honor of being one brave enough to do so. Now cause of all the oversaturation by Bobby Kod*ck all it seems to mean is "multiplayer mayhem with no real emphasis on its true name at all."
Last edited by Lairfan on 2/10/2011 5:00:05 PM
Lawless SXE
Thursday, February 10, 2011 @ 5:15:13 PM
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Either way, CoD will be the highest selling franchise of the year. That's a given.
Peace.
Dancemachine55
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 12:40:29 AM
Dancemachine55
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 12:45:43 AM
Reply
CoD4 had a nice blend of slow, stealthy missions, balls to the wall action sequences and moments in between that let you soak up the atmosphere. I don't want ADHD explosive action constantly going on at all times, it just eventually bores me, and its been done to death with other recent CoDs.
Many of my friends are over CoD as well. Might trade them all in soon. Convincing them all to move to either Killzone 3 or Battlefield 3.
I've got a CoD for each system, so I really have zero interest in anything CoD related from here on out. Unless reviewers like Ben say the single player is amazingly good, then I am happy to give MW3 another chance.
___________
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 1:22:27 AM
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i just cant understand why the games so popular, the SP is short and crap, and the MP is riddled with more bugs than the whole of Australia!
eh, i guess the saying is true, pull one in and all will follow, throw the meat of the cliff and set the barby to high!
crunchy_nut_kid
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 2:06:26 AM
Reply
Stang
Friday, February 11, 2011 @ 11:50:08 AM
Reply
Last edited by Stang on 2/11/2011 11:50:44 AM
ae86takumi
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @ 11:03:04 AM
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Hatimat
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @ 2:15:30 PM
Reply
t4_robz
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @ 8:03:13 PM
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