Infinity Ward has largely moved on, but Activision still has high expectations for the Call of Duty brand. In today's investment call, CEO Bobby Kotick said that the title represents "the biggest investment that we've ever made in the launch of a title."
Kotick cited Call of Duty's "incredibly broad appeal" as the main reason to throw the full weight of their resources behind the title. The Treyarch-developed shooter will also be competing directly against EA's Medal of Honor revival, which is also due this fall.
"There's a lot of competition," Kotick acknowledged, "and this is something that we think has the potential to break through and appeal to a much broader consumer base than ever before."
In the meantime, Activision's revenues continue to rise. The publisher recorded a 12 percent year-over-year increase in profits, netting $219 million. Total revenue dipped seven percent to $967 million, but a boost in online revenue helped raise the publisher's profit margins.
Call of Duty continues to be one of the publisher's top performers, thanks at least in part to the 20 million units of DLC that has been sold across the franchise. World of WarCraft and its massive subscriber base also provides an important revenue stream.
Black Ops will be out November 9 and one thing is for sure, i'm as excited as a mothafugguh. Are you?
If Medal of Honor doesn't get much better than the Beta is now, MoH has absolutely no chance. The Beta just SUCKS. Either way I think Black ops will dominate, but MoH would have to step up it's game big time to even have a chance. I wonder if the same thing that happened with IW and Activision will happen with Treyarch now? This game seems like it will be even bigger than MW2 considering this: "This just in: #CODBlackOps pre-orders are out-pacing all other COD pre-orders to date. Thanks all for your support!"