Record $500m sales for Black Ops II
By comparison, Microsoft Corp’s sci-fi action-shooter Halo 4, launched a week earlier, had sales of $220m in its first day on the market.
In 2011, Activision reported first-day sales of about $400m for its latest game at the time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and sales of $1bn after 16 days.
I'm playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II (193 others checked-in) http://t.co/hx3TpXzx #GetGlue #CallOfDuty
— Stone City Woodworks (@Rob_Purvis) November 17, 2012
Activision, the world’s largest videogame publisher, raised its earnings outlook last week on expectations for strong holiday sales of its new Call of Duty: Black Ops II, saying it hoped it would beat previous Call of Duty records.
However, the company said yesterday that it remains cautious about the rest of 2012 and 2013.
As more gamers migrate from console gaming to mobile offerings on tablets and smartphones, the video game industry has seen revenues decline.
I can't believe I'm watching the making of call of duty: black ops II....
— Whitney (@whitness2013) November 17, 2012
The performance of high-profile titles such as Call of Duty is being observed closely as a gauge of future demand for the sector.
Activision said it believes the new Call of Duty release represents “the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row.”
It said millions of fans attended more than 16,000 midnight openings at retail stores worldwide on Nov 13.
Its first-day sales estimate was based on Chart-Track, retail customer sell-through information and internal company estimates.
