Modern Warfare 2 Shatters Records

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Modern Warfare 2 Shatters Records

Post by trog @ 12:43am 19/11/09 | 36 Comments

Any fears that the dedicated server debacle might've slowed the success of Modern Warfare 2 are well out of the way with Activision's announcement that Modern Warfare 2 has simply smoked everything else in terms of sales records, raking in US$550 million in just 5 days. It has smashed all previous first and five day records, including:

-- The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)
-- The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)
-- The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)
-- The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)
-- The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)
-- The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

There's no mention in the PR about the percentage of those sales which are console versus PC, but it seems safe to assume the bulk of them are console.

Tags: modern warfare 2

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infi
Posted 12:47am 19/11/09

I've got to give it to them, their calculated risk of shafting PC users to make the game universally appealing to all platforms certainly paid dividends.

I guess we can expect more of this in the future. :S

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HeardY
Posted 12:50am 19/11/09

jesus, that's decent pocket change after just a week.

Clearly pandering to the console market is the most profitable and they'll continue to do so, across all consoles/platforms as well no doubt.

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Infidel
Posted 12:57am 19/11/09

werent prices of the games raised a lot higher than other titles?

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plasmo
Posted 01:00am 19/11/09

yeah about double the price of other titles

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Trauma
Posted 02:01am 19/11/09

RIP dedicated servers and proper MP.

Oh wait bad company 2 will have it.

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HurricaneJim
Posted 02:07am 19/11/09

You forgot the other "official records";

Most Pirated Console Game prior to release
Most Pirated Console Game after release
Most Xbox Consoles banned after Pirating MW2
Most Hacked Game on PC
Most Boycotted Game on PC
Most Petitioned Game on PC

BTW how does a game smash a book sales record?

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Mantra
Posted 02:07am 19/11/09

I reckon if I told a non-gamer that the release of a game has out grossed all film box office records, they wouldn't believe me. "Over half a billion USD? In 5 days? No way!" :)

btw, I didn't buy it. So someone must have bought two :D

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CSIRAC
Posted 02:08am 19/11/09

Most Pirated Console Game prior to release Most Pirated Console Game after release Most Xbox Consoles banned after Pirating MW2 Most Hacked Game on PC Most Boycotted Game on PC Most Petitioned Game on PC

and they're laughing to the bank with those records.

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ctd
Posted 02:08am 19/11/09

Apparently you can download the warez version and play online fine. They will probably patch it up soon enough but wasn't that one of the major factors in introducing IWnet (along with being in total control of additional content and patches 'dlc')

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Mantra
Posted 02:13am 19/11/09

BTW how does a game smash a book sales record?

Well, you add up all sales from the largest selling book, and all the sales from the largest selling game, and compare the two ;)

It's just a comparison of different types of media.

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CSIRAC
Posted 02:22am 19/11/09

With all this money, does anyone think programmers in the future will be able to demand ridiculous amounts of money for their work, akin to what actors are being paid now?

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Khel
Posted 02:34am 19/11/09

Why has Bad Company 2 become the poster child for people who are boycotting MW2? Have people forgotten the small little detail that the first Bad Company was a console game? And that Dice's other most recent fps, Battlefield 1943, was also a console game? I'm gonna laugh pretty hard when Bad Company 2 comes out and it isn't the game people are imagining it to be.

Not that I'm saying MW2 is fantastic and Bad Company 2 will be shit, I just find it amusing that it has such a rabid following recently, like its some kind of PC gaming messiah who will lead us to the promised land, when really, theres not much to back that up.

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Mantra
Posted 02:44am 19/11/09

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/23/

... "I was on QGL son"

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Insolence
Posted 07:38am 19/11/09

Only the controversial PC version of the game could be considered a disappointment, entering at only number five in the individual formats chart. The PC version accounted for just three per cent of overall sales, compared to 57 per cent for the 360 and 40 per cent for the PlayStation 3.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/easy-victory-for-modern-warfare-2-in-uk-charts

These figures are specific to the UK and don't account for steam sales but it would be fair to assume this sales ratio probably applies to other territories.

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Nathan
Posted 07:53am 19/11/09

Re: console piracy. Do you think its possible that we'll see some 360/PS3 games start to ship with CD keys?

For games with popular multi-player, adding a key authentication server like we typically have on PC multiplayer games would reduce potential piracy a lot.

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Python
Posted 08:41am 19/11/09

How do they do the comparison of games vs movies aside from gross figures?

$100 game vs $10 movie? Possible to see how many tickets get sold for a movie instead of a $ value?

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scuzzy
Posted 09:00am 19/11/09

How do they do the comparison of games vs movies aside from gross figures?

Next time I'm going to compare game sales vs sale of watermelons at coles.

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Python
Posted 09:01am 19/11/09

hah that's what I was thinking

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ctd
Posted 09:21am 19/11/09

Why has Bad Company 2 become the poster child for people who are boycotting MW2?

lol people are actually hoping this game will be good? Am I the only one who played bf2142 and bad company and thought they were fucking ordinary? Dice games have a retarded 'feel'... if you know what I mean. When you are walking around the map it's bad.

edit: also I wish Valve released sales figures for steam. Interested to see Retail vs Steam

last edited by ctd at 09:21:39 19/Nov/09

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Beanith
Posted 09:58am 19/11/09

Re: console piracy. Do you think its possible that we'll see some 360/PS3 games start to ship with CD keys?

For games with popular multi-player, adding a key authentication server like we typically have on PC multiplayer games would reduce potential piracy a lot.

If they did start doing stuff like that then I would wonder who would cry foul louder? Console fans because they're being treated like pirating pc users or EB games/Game Trader etc because they are hampering the resale of the console game?

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ravn0s
Posted 10:01am 19/11/09

wouldnt surprise me if they went down the cdkey route. leaked versions of 360 games are usually available 1-2 weeks before release.

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Dan
Posted 10:12am 19/11/09

Re: console piracy. Do you think its possible that we'll see some 360/PS3 games start to ship with CD keys?

For games with popular multi-player, adding a key authentication server like we typically have on PC multiplayer games would reduce potential piracy a lot.

Well MS seem to be well and truly on top of piracy, at least in terms of online play. Wii is much easier to pirate, but there's not much online worth playing.

If they introduce a CD key system for consoles, the only real purpose it would serve is to lock discs to a single person's account to prevent resale - sadly, I can definitely see this happening.

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trog
Posted 10:15am 19/11/09

Why has Bad Company 2 become the poster child for people who are boycotting MW2? Have people forgotten the small little detail that the first Bad Company was a console game? And that Dice's other most recent fps, Battlefield 1943, was also a console game? I'm gonna laugh pretty hard when Bad Company 2 comes out and it isn't the game people are imagining it to be.

Not that I'm saying MW2 is fantastic and Bad Company 2 will be shit, I just find it amusing that it has such a rabid following recently, like its some kind of PC gaming messiah who will lead us to the promised land, when really, theres not much to back that up.

100% agree. Please don't hold up BC2/1943 as any sort of poster child for the dedicated server promised land.

I can't explain why because of NDAs but trust me, it's not a great situation.

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Trauma
Posted 10:20am 19/11/09

I don't play any BF games, but its this simple, they are going to stick with it, that makes them better than IW. And BC2 is a similar game, hence the comparisons, and Trog there are NDA's for a reason, you just displayed it perfectly.

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Carson
Posted 10:40am 19/11/09

How do they do the comparison of games vs movies aside from gross figures?

$100 game vs $10 movie? Possible to see how many tickets get sold for a movie instead of a $ value?

That's what I was thinking. Movies and books cost less than MW2 did at release.

Valve should be the ones we look too as the messiahs of PC gaming. They constantly release high quality multiplayer games with solid dedicated server software. They have not let me down once.

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groganus
Posted 10:42am 19/11/09

lets not forget that buying a game is more exspensive then going to see a movie, so whilst the amount earned is higher it doesnt reflect the same number of people viewing/purchasing.

Still impressive non the less.. and to be honest the game was better then any blockbuster movie ive seen in awhile..

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Beanith
Posted 10:49am 19/11/09

If they introduce a CD key system for consoles, the only real purpose it would serve is to lock discs to a single person's account to prevent resale - sadly, I can definitely see this happening.

And I'm quite happy for the developer and publisher to shaft Ebgames/game traders/etc in this fashion. Mostly because of the price they put on second hand games. Buy it for $15-$20 and then turn around and resell it for $80-$90. And there's always someone willing to save $10 and get the second hand copy. And the developer and publisher don't even get a sniff of it.

Don't get me wrong, I support the notion of being able to resell a game. I just don't support the vastly inflated profit margin and that none of the resellers are willing lead the way in lowering the prices of 2nd hand games.

My ideal price point for a 2nd game would be 50% of retail.

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E.T.
Posted 10:59am 19/11/09

Had a ball in this game last night.

My bud Maverick and I checked out the party system. Its works great.
Make a party, find a game and you always end up on the same side, and you can see you party members highlighted in blue rather than green on the hud. It makes working in small teams all the easier and the overall game experience all that more enjoyable.

They've really done their home work on the this one. Top marks from me.

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nexus6
Posted 11:26am 19/11/09

"Don't get me wrong, I support the notion of being able to resell a game. I just don't support the vastly inflated profit margin and that none of the resellers are willing lead the way in lowering the prices of 2nd hand games.

My ideal price point for a 2nd game would be 50% of retail."

i have my own games store, we sell second hand for about 70% off rrp and pay about half that. I shake my head every time i see someone trading in at EBs, but as we are seeing with the steady move to consoles, people are like sheep, they just follow the herd.

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deadlyf
Posted 11:54am 19/11/09

I reckon you'd want to be getting paid for that instead of giving it up for free. The statistics are clearly misleading and purely derived for nothing other then advertisement.

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Mass
Posted 11:58am 19/11/09

ET has gone darkside on us. Can't believe you bought this game, hope you like to play FPS games on console cause soon thats thats the only place you'll be able to get them.

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E.T.
Posted 12:09pm 19/11/09

Nah, I dont believe it dude. As long as there's a market, there will be products made for it. Anyways, its a great product and I'm having a blast playing it, so, thats all good.

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Spook
Posted 12:15pm 19/11/09

HES ONE OF THEM!
GET HIM BOYS!!!!!

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parabol
Posted 08:58pm 19/11/09

I've had a chance to play someone else's PC copy recently. The single-player experience is absolutely awesome. So far 9/10 for action and plenty of originality, has the feeling of a movie but not so much as to feel like a cutscene.

Would have bought myself a copy if it weren't for dodgy P2P multiplayer. I could imagine having plenty of fun on the internet if they did it right.

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thermite
Posted 09:31am 20/11/09

Sounds like everyone that buys this game hates their after sales experience. The only reason it broke all those sales records is cos it costs 5 times more than other games on steam.

What is there to be proud of? It beat some Harry Potter game nobody plays?

last edited by thermite at 09:31:46 20/Nov/09

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