back to article Latest Call of Duty sequel shoots past Avatar sales benchmark

In December 2011, Activision boasted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 had clocked up $1 billion in sales more quickly that James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar had done back in 2009. CoD reached that milestone in 16 days, ‘Dances with Wolves in space’ in 17 days. A year on, the games publisher is making exactly the same …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it sustainable?

    There plenty of other FPS games out there that are free to play. Not that I would know. Being allergic to uncontrolled combinations of testosterone and immaturity, I prefer single player RPGs. Especially on the PC, where I can get lots of free DLC. I also like some of the small Indie games that are emerging from Steam's Greenlight process. Oh, I almost forgot. Get off my lawn.

    1. Greg J Preece

      Re: Is it sustainable?

      There plenty of other FPS games out there that are free to play.

      You mean pay-to-win. I got sick of the F2P model ten seconds after it appeared. If you want to have any kind of useful content, or stand a chance against the paid players, you have to pay in, and the total cost is way more than just buying a game outright. To get all the content, you need to pay a frankly infeasible amount of money, and unlocking it through free play is reckoned in some cases to take several decades.

      I was excited as hell for Tribes to come back, and I got into the beta. I quickly realised how the F2P model ruined it. Same goes for Planetside 2, which looks really interesting, but at $7 per weapon they can fuck off. Hawken too, looked amazing, right up until they announced it was F2P.

      I really hope the F2P business model dies a horrible, painful death. It ruins everything it touches.

      1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

        Re: Is it sustainable?

        I don't think there are plenty of FPS games for free. F2P is not what I consider free, as Greg pointed out. Totally free is Urban Terror and quite fun too. Any others?

      2. bondyboy

        Re: Is it sustainable?

        Tribes is F2P, I've not spent a penny on it and still manage to hold my own (most games)

        1. Greg J Preece

          Re: Is it sustainable?

          Tribes is F2P, I've not spent a penny on it and still manage to hold my own (most games)

          I would agree that it's less pay-to-win than most of the F2P games out there, and I did play it for a while. Their pricing is also less insane than others - at launch it was £35 for pretty much all the content, which is much more reasonable (except that the game didn't have a whole lot of actual content - few maps, etc).

          It was also the lack of complexity in the gameplay compared with the original Tribes games that put me off, if I'm honest. For example, they kept in all the weapons and armour sets that allow you to base-camp, but removed all the kit that let you defend against that. In the original I could build my own base, mod on the fly, etc, etc. Ascend is a poor imitation, as was Vengeance.

          Still, the F2P bait-and-switch is there, if you ask me. I did far better in terms of scoring in the earlier games than in Ascend, and there always seems to be someone with a superior loadout ready to mess you up.

  2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Ok, that shows that

    Mediocre games sell well, so do mediocre movies and mediocre music and mediocre phones and mediocre etc etc etc...

    1. FartingHippo
      Megaphone

      Re: Ok, that shows that

      The unwashed masses are clearly less discerning that your good self.

      Personally, I'd rather watch Thor than The Artist any day of the week, pleb that I am.

      1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

        Re: Ok, that shows that

        "The unwashed masses are clearly less discerning that your good self."

        That's what you say.

    2. asdf
      FAIL

      Re: Ok, that shows that

      Not always. It doesn't get much more mediocre than MOH Warfighter and that game has sold so poorly it will end up killing its studio (a mercy killing).

  3. adam payne

    I wonder how many of these people are playing the multiplayer?

    Stopped playing it myself as I got sick of being camped on and spawn killed.

    1. Fading
      Black Helicopters

      Give it a month or two.........

      Give it a month or two until the usual crowd of twitchers find something else shiney to play with and online should be fine again (find this with BF3 whenever new content is available - just drop back to MW3 or BFBC2 for awhile).

  4. Phil W
    FAIL

    Comparing total sales in money is fail?

    As per the title, this seems stupid. The only way the comparison is of any use is if they cost the same to buy it's rather like saying the iPhone 5 reached $1 Billion is sales before the HTC Salsa

  5. mark 63 Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    8bitStyle

    Activision have come along way since "River Raid" !

    1. ADJB

      Re: 8bitStyle

      Your right they have come a long way.

      £5 has changed into £50 to buy a game.

      Originality has given way to re-skinned generic cloned games.

      Tape to Tape copying is a bit of a waste of time nowadays.

      Flogging and reflogging a dead horse with DLC was never part of there game plan.

      Being abused by 12 year olds practicing there swearing was never a problem on the 8 bits.

      Swapping playability and re-playability for shiny graphics.

      I can see how years of progress has changed Activision for the better

      1. Annihilator
        Thumb Up

        Re: 8bitStyle

        You paid £5 for River Raid?? Mine was £2.99 on cassette ;-)

        Am amazed Activision have survived too. I'm sure I was told back at the time that tape 2 tape was going to kill them off.

      2. Great Bu

        Being abused by 12 year olds practicing there swearing was never a problem on the 8 bits.

        You obviously never played round at our house......

  6. MJI Silver badge

    Haven't done either

    Not seen Avatar but my wife wants to see the Smurfs.

    Not played any COD , except a small bit of a WW2 version, years ago.

  7. Magani
    WTF?

    Why compare apples with oranges?

    I may have missed the point here but what's the purpose (other than penis/$$$ envy) in comparing computer games with movies?

    It could just as easily be said that Kodak sold more rolls of film than VW sold Beatles.

    1. Greg J Preece

      Re: Why compare apples with oranges?

      It's generally done to try and show that video gaming is a legitimate media. As a certain Mr Brooker will often point out, you're allowed to be a film enthusiast, or a literary snob, and people think you're all sophisticated. Discuss how you enjoy the beautiful escapism of Okami, or how immersive the latest FPS is, and people call you a manchild/nerd.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why wouldnt it make over 2 billion....?

    If they sold DLC which amounted to the same or more than the value of the game as it is now to every single person that bought the game then surely the revenue made so far would at least double... thereby making the 1 billion they have now miraculously creep past that 2 billion mark...

  9. asdf
    FAIL

    Dances with wolves pffft hardly.

    Everyone knows its Pocahontas in space.

    http://cheezburger.com/3034350592

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dances with wolves pffft hardly.

      It's "Ferngully/Pokeherhaunches: Dances with Smurfs"

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It doesn't matter

    Black ops 2 is bollocks! I am ashamed that I paid money for it, not a shade on the MWF series.

    1. asdf

      Re: It doesn't matter

      Zombie mode is ok. I like the whole Partridge bus thing theme.

  11. asdf
    FAIL

    EA troll time

    Sometimes you can string just a few words together for a great joke. Like

    Medal of Honor Warfighter DLC. LMAO!!!!

    1. asdf

      Re: EA troll time

      Yes I know COD is Activision and they are no better and COD is the McDonald's of shooters but still bask in making fun of total flops. COD mints $$$$ and MOH makes for painful calls with analysts.

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