For three consecutive years, the Call of Duty franchise has set new sales records every time a new entry has shipped. Activision believes the streak will be extended to four years following the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which the company predicts will become the best-selling game of all time.
On an financial report conference call (transcibed by Seeking Alpha), Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg related to investors what the publisher anticipated from Black Ops II's sales performance. "Developed by our team at Treyarch, the game has the potential to be [the] biggest selling game of all time," Hirshberg stated. "And the buzz to date has been tremendous. YouTube views are nearly double those for Modern Warfare 3, Facebook engagement is up more than 150 percent, and the Black Ops II multiplayer reveal from GamesCom became the largest live stream event in Xbox Live's history."
Hirshberg believes the pre-release hype for Black Ops II will lead it to outperform the previous record holder, Modern Warfare 3. Citing both Black Ops II pre-order numbers and recent Nielsen surveys, Hirshberg continued describing the anticipated success of the upcoming sequel. "Looking to the launch, we're working incredibly hard with all of our partners around the world to make Call of Duty the biggest entertainment launch of all time for the fourth consecutive year," said Hirshberg. "Pre-orders for Black Ops II continued to track ahead of Modern Warfare 3, which is no small feat given that MW3's was the most successful pre-order program of all time."
Previous success isn't always an indicator of future success however, and Hirshberg acknowledged that these were just projections. "There are always risks when trying to grow a brand that is already performing at record-setting levels," he stated. "So while we're optimistic, we're still planning prudently. We look forward to sharing details about our successes with you over the weeks ahead."
What do you think of Black Ops II's chances? Will it set a new record, or will this be the year Call of Duty sales level out?
SOURCE: CVG
