Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may have blown up the charts when it launched, but according to recent reports sales of Activision’s most recent entry in the long-running franchise are declining. Though the exact sales numbers haven’t been made public, analysts at Macquarie Equities claim volume sales of Modern Warfare 3 are 4.2% behind Black Ops. The same analysts also report that last month’s Modern Warfare 3 sales were half of what Black Ops sold in the same period a year ago.
Analysts at PiperJaffray believe the decline in sales is due to the changes in the casual market. Specifically, the casual consumer isn’t buying as many games at retail after launch, and is primarily using his console for streaming media. Microsoft has indicated that more console owners are using the Xbox 360 for media consumption than they are for playing games, so there might be a bit of truth to what PiperJaffray believes.
Since the Call of Duty titles continually set new records for sales, it’s unlikely that the franchise is anywhere near its end. As Gamasutra states, 34% of the company’s revenue last fiscal quarter came from digital sales and services like Call of Duty Elite. While the overall sales might indeed be in decline, the inclusion of Elite’s profits will surely augment the 4% dip.
SOURCE: Call of Duty sales slow down as casual buyers find entertainment elsewhere [Gamasutra]
XenonTonami
July 19, 2012 at 10:15pm
I personally think CoD should end. They've made so many games. Also, it's basically re-releasing the same game every year set either in WWII or the Cold War. (PS: Why would the Cold War have fighting? It was a forty year war of politics, mainly. Why should we have Black Ops invading Russia when politics were battling in ways of treating other countries. Why did the US even get all up in Russia's face, even?) Anyways, I think CoD sucks. i've never bought one game after plaing MW. I didn't like the concept at all.
KalJericho
April 21, 2012 at 4:51am
I would actually blame the elite sales for the loss of revenue in MW3 why should we fork out £35 for a game and then £35 for the elite sybscription for a year which is in essence just a stat tracker ok there are some good things about it the overhead view of the maps that alow you to learn topography of each map but you get that for free anyway just dont see the point.
TenTonHammer
April 16, 2012 at 4:50pm
I do think that CoD would have been better served with releasing biennial rather than every year. While admittedly, I've bought every one, the amount I've played each has varied greatly. I only played WaW, MW2, and BO probably less than 100 hours between the 3 online. I almost passed on MW3 but my bro was playing heavily and I got it for $32 shipped. For whatever reason, I'm back into playing MW3 online more than ever and have already put in 75ish hours. CoD4 is still my fav. That game with a few of the perk/kill streak tweaks would be even more beastly. While the drop is only 4.2% and more than made up for by Elite subs, it does portend that many may be getting bored with the series. It happened with Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk (2 other series that were pretty popular and that Activision has pretty much killed with annual releases). Instead of CoD, I'd rather have Treyarch work on the next generation of Wolfenstein (but AFAIK, Zenimax/Bethesda may now own the rights to that) One can dream anyway.
stealth202
April 16, 2012 at 12:01pm
Good. Pumping out virtually the same game every year is basically robbery.
