Pretty plausible, since HD systems became more mass targeted last year, so much more people who probably were interested in the game had the possibility to buy it.
NPD January 2012 Sales Results [Up2: MW3 Sales, (Down ~50% Over BLOPS, But Still #1)]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Pretty plausible, since HD systems became more mass targeted last year, so much more people who probably were interested in the game had the possibility to buy it.
Anaemic... Black Ops outstripped 12.75 million from its November launch to the end of January in 2011.
Skyrim and Fallout pretty much feed off of each other in terms of sales growth.
I think it's very important to keep track of that part.
TheBioLover
Member
Anyone else get the feeling that Black Ops 2 (Or whatever the next CoD is called) is going to have a dip in sales? There is starting to be a general feeling of hate for it now on the 'net.
Although, a fair amount of people still love it, so I'm sure it will still have good sales, just not as good as past CoD's
Although, a fair amount of people still love it, so I'm sure it will still have good sales, just not as good as past CoD's
Hate on the 'net has no relevance at all in real sales. Especially for mass franchises such as Call of Duty.
MikeE21286
Member
Holy wow at that mw3 number. Well that's no good at all....for anyone.
If love/hate on the net meant anything more than 5% (probably less than that) COD would have bombed after world at war.
Black Ops 2, brought into account that it's a widening follow-up, possesses the possibility to batter all sales records.
ShellyDeKiller
Member
Yeah, I actually think Black Ops 2 will outsell MW3.
If you check Xbox live activity, Black Ops is up there behind MW3 despite being more than a year old (ahead of games like Fifa or Battlefield 3). That shows that many Black Ops players did not jump to MW3.
The same was true of Black Ops and MW2 though.
CoD games just have great retention:
Right. Black Ops was fantabulous for my part, and MW3 plainly too similar to MW2.
walking fiend
Member
well, it may have sold a lot on Steam; I suppose Skyrim did
maybe more people have moved to PCs now that an affordable one easily outperforms consoles?
The same was true of Black Ops and MW2 though.
CoD games just have great retention:
40 million monthly users? What franchise is able to be put next to that?
-Pyromaniac-
Member
Treyarch > Infinity Ward when it comes to everything other than making the game run well on both consoles.
Anyway I don't know if it was posted but they claim that the next COD game "will add meaningful innovations" to the franchise. Looks like they were fine not innovating until sales dipped, lol.
Anyway I don't know if it was posted but they claim that the next COD game "will add meaningful innovations" to the franchise. Looks like they were fine not innovating until sales dipped, lol.
Thats just PR talk, they are hardly going to say "we are going to produced the same crap we do every year but with a slight twist"
-Pyromaniac-
Member
It's Treyarch. Expect something ample.
walking fiend
Member
didn't pay attention to that; that's almost insane.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
don't have to tell me, I'm a fan of them.
Black Ops 2 will definitely be on Wii U, since it's Treyarch doing it. They might finally skip the Wii version, though. They had done Wii versions of all their previous CoD's and one of IW's.
Lagspike_exe
Member
Old Infinity Ward >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Treyarch >>>> New Infinity Ward in terms of anything. Putting Treyarch above IW when IW actually created the franchise, revolutionized FPS with the Modern Warfare and basically spearheaded every single inovation in the franchise is ridicoulos.
It shows stagnation, not a downfall. MW3 had stronger launch sales than Black Ops, signalling that it's becoming more frontloaded. Lack of follow through in January means that growth is coming to a halt.
People are getting smarter. After how awful MW3 is, the next CoD will surely take a hit in sales.
Black Ops 2 will definitely be on Wii U, since it's Treyarch doing it. They might finally skip the Wii version, though. They had done Wii versions of all their previous CoD's and one of IW's.
Two of IWs actually.
(Modern Warfare Reflex which was a port of MW1 and Modern Warfare 3).
Dopey Activision.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Farmville, Angry Birds.
Solitaire?
Eh, modern combat theme is getting old after 5 years of omnipresence. Black Ops was an interesting chang with the cold war thing, I think if they set the next COD fifty or a hundred years from now with futuristic everything, space colonization etc. people would go nuts over it. Plus they'd have an excuse for even bigger explosions and smaller corridors 
Petrae
Member
Interesting assumption.
I think that we can look to shooter fatigue as a better point of emphasis. After a lengthy stay at the top of software genre sales breakdowns, shooters have been bested in sales by Action titles over the last two months. Skyrim and Just Dance sales are staying the course for the most part, while MW3 and BF3 are headed down.
We've seen a big focus on shooters for a good part of this console generation, but trends change. That's not to say that the genre doesn't spike back when the next big FPS comes out, but I think that the era of the shooter is nearing its conclusion.
Audacious.
Lagspike_exe
Member
BF3 sold much better than BC2 in the same year MW3 did not manage to beat Black Ops by a huge percentage. The issue here isn't just fatigue, it's the fact that they did not inovate at all and the quality across the board took a nose dive. I've beaten every Call of Duty with the expection of Call of Duty 3 during one or two days and my MW3 copy is sitting on the shelf, as I only managed to beat the 1st singleplayer level without getting bored. It's just awful, a huge downgrade compared with MW2 and even MW1 in some areas.
Giant Panda
Member
It's good to see Call of Duty going down, hopefully we will see more variety in game genres soon.
funkystudent
Member
well it seems the entire industry is going down with it....
Petrae
Member
I can't comment on the game's quality personally (I only tried it for about 30 minutes after the holidays), but I get the sense that there's at least a moderate pattern shift coming in terms of genres at retail. Shooters have been, far and away, the biggest trend over the last 4+ years. We've seen them EVERYWHERE, with developers and publishers struggling to find the next Modern Warfare.
I'm calling it based on observation and instinct, but I very well might end up being wrong about shooters finally relaxing a bit.
It took me over an hour to download a 100 something mb Killzone 3 update last night. What the hell is wrong with PSn servers?
Lagspike_exe
Member
More like what's wrong with your internet. I have 8Mbps and my DL speed is around 1MB, which is maximum for my connection.
They seem to be hit and miss i was DL'ing Infamous: Festival of Blood earlier and it did it in 15mins.
Which was a nice surprise.
Yea buddy it's my internet.. Considering I have no issues downloading quickly over Steam or XBL.....
PSN download speeds are just a joke.. It's not just a isolated case..
bigtroyjon
Member
One slow month's worth of NPD data is a drop in the bucket, shooters are growing and we haven't even hit the peak of the shooter era, let alone gotten a whiff of the end.
The article said that sales are flat/identical to date. Just means that MW3 was more front-loaded while Black Ops sold more over time. Not exactly a decline just yet.
What could be the cause? New consoles?
Petrae
Member
I'm talking about sales of new shooters declining, not play of existing shooters.
Looking at genre breakdowns of new games sold, shooters have gone from over 30% in November (naturally, due to MW3) down to less than 13% in two months' time.
Shooters actually ranked 4th in December.
It might be a temporary trend, as you believe. We'll see.
Petrae
Member
I think it's too soon to be that reactionary, but if Call of Duty is indeed in decline as an IP, then industry contraction makes sense. Call of Duty appeals to multiple audiences, casual and core... so if CoD loses its popularity and casual players go elsewhere, that's potentially less revenue overall.
It's still too soon to tell. We need to reserve judgments until after Q1 ends to see if this is an aberration or if legitimate trends are in place signifying a period of industry correction.
Black Ops already hammered MW3 in the UK.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
So lets get this right. Activision, having shat the bed with Guitar Hero already and seen that franchise die of over use and fatigue have managed to do the same for COD.
Every year COD brings nothing new to the table and now Activision are going to be relying on the Bungie IP that may or may not bring mega success. I know the whole COD Elite crap is trying to make COD more like WoW whereby Activision have guaranteed revenue from hardcore players, but the bread and butter is still about shipping 20m copies of a $60 game (or 10m copies of a $100 game in the case of GH).
Without COD I don't see where Activision go. EA still have their annual bankers like FIFA and Madden from their sports divisions and they have invested heavily in original content for a good few years now, and that strategy has borne some fruit. The massive overpayment for BioWare could even work out with ME making it much bigger than most expected.
For Activision, they have no real original content coming out from their own teams, they have an EA Partners style agreement with Bungie for a game (but that won't be anything to write home about in revenue terms, I expect Bungie negotiated a very good deal there coming off Halo) and their massive IP has started faltering. Good thing Blizzard are bringing considerable heat with Diablo 3 this year because the picture for Activision is looking rather bleak.
Every year COD brings nothing new to the table and now Activision are going to be relying on the Bungie IP that may or may not bring mega success. I know the whole COD Elite crap is trying to make COD more like WoW whereby Activision have guaranteed revenue from hardcore players, but the bread and butter is still about shipping 20m copies of a $60 game (or 10m copies of a $100 game in the case of GH).
Without COD I don't see where Activision go. EA still have their annual bankers like FIFA and Madden from their sports divisions and they have invested heavily in original content for a good few years now, and that strategy has borne some fruit. The massive overpayment for BioWare could even work out with ME making it much bigger than most expected.
For Activision, they have no real original content coming out from their own teams, they have an EA Partners style agreement with Bungie for a game (but that won't be anything to write home about in revenue terms, I expect Bungie negotiated a very good deal there coming off Halo) and their massive IP has started faltering. Good thing Blizzard are bringing considerable heat with Diablo 3 this year because the picture for Activision is looking rather bleak.
Petrae
Member
Interesting to note here that Ben Schachter of Macquarie Securities not only downgraded Activision stock from "buy" to "neutral", but also EA:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/videogame-stocks-sink-on-weak-sales-data-2012-02-10?siteid=yhoof2
Analysts and investors are showing nerves and fear, perhaps an overreaction at this point.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/videogame-stocks-sink-on-weak-sales-data-2012-02-10?siteid=yhoof2
Analysts and investors are showing nerves and fear, perhaps an overreaction at this point.