Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 said to break sales records
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is said to have broken the single-day sales record for an entertainment property. According to Activision, the game earned $310 million in North America and England alone in its first 24 hours.
(Credit: Activision)So much for the supposedly unbreakable first-day sales record set last year by Grand Theft Auto IV.
On Thursday, Activision said that its brand-new Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare, which hit store shelves on Tuesday, had "shattered" the previous record for opening-day sales by an entertainment property, earning $310 million in North America and the U.K. alone. That equates to 4.7 million copies of the new game sold in those regions, and, if true, would eclipse the previous first-day sales record of $310 million globally, which GTA IV set in May of 2008.
Given that GTA IV had nearly doubled the previous record of $170 million, set by Halo 3, I wondered at the time whether its new mark was unassailable. Clearly, the new Call of Duty has answered that question, and loudly.
Now, we have to ask once again whether there could be another challenger for the crown. It would be foolish, it seems, to conclude that there won't be, given the dominance of franchises like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto itself, and, of course, Call of Duty.
A bigger question could be: Why do we care? That's especially true given how frequently these mega-records are broken. Still, it's hard not to get worked up about what it means for a single video game title to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in a single 24-hour period, particularly while we're still mired in a fairly deep recession.
There are all kinds of arguments to be made about why video games do well in tough economic times, and I've trotted a number of them out in this space. But most games don't come anywhere near selling $310 million worth of product in their entire lifetime, let alone on their first day, so Activision--and its Infinity Ward studio, which actually developed the new Call of Duty--seem entitled to a little bit of attention.
But at the rate these records are falling, I'm going to have to start thinking twice every time a new game sends me one of these announcements about breaking records. Sooner or later, it's not going to be all that noteworthy, no matter how much money is earned in a single day. Until then, though, watch this space for word on which game will be next in line for the throne.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
Play solo campaign, then go online and get the real-world instant gratification of playing against a real person.
Nice change from the overhyped, voiced-over crap that Hollywood insists on cramming down our throats every Christmas, Memorial Day and 4th of July.
If so then they are going to obliterate the old record.
I think the next time we'll see this record go is with Modern Warfare 3, the Halo franchise proved you can go bigger and better with Halo2/Halo3 and I think Activision will already be rubbing their hands with glee.
Reply to spacemonkey086- Halo ODST was lame not just by Halo standards.
Seriously though, I will be sticking to my word and will not be buying this. I don't support companies that dumb down PC games that also appear on consoles.
Lead, fallow or get the fu*k out the way.
I'm not happy about the lack of PC support for this game and I don't own a console so I'll miss out for a while, but I'll be honest I'll buy this game when the price comes down. I'm just disappointed w/ IW.
BTW a 400lb gorilla is not exceptionally large for a gorilla (the largest species); it's not unheard of for them to exceed 500lbs.
Learn to spell, get your idioms correct, or go back to school.
Haskett2 is totally right.
So IW doesn't give you dedicated servers or lean...so what? You get IWNet, for one, which is believe by Infinity Ward to be an improvement over dedicated servers. They also guaranteed that changes will be made if people ask for them. You also get the mouse and keyboard setup which I would personally love to have if I could.
So, PC gamers who boycott this game are simply in the wrong. They still get a great, great game. PC gamers are not entitled to as many things as they think.
Not only that, but you have to understand that IW/Activision is a business. PC gaming is so much less popular than it was several years ago. It may be unfortunate that MW2 is a glaring example of this, but PC gaming is getting less and less exclusive and more and more accessible.
You have to play with the cards your dealt. If you can afford MW2 now, I would highly recommend you get it since it's really a great game. I understand that you're bitter but you, as well as all these other PC gamers that are whining, need to drop it and grow up a bit.
http://kotaku.com/5403286/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing
Extremely dissappointed, Infinity Ward, youve gone treyarch on us!
I have been a gamer for a long time and no other game comes close to this. I am 34 married with a kid...I expect to keep playing when I am in an old age home at 85 years old.
Long live MW2!
See you online...bosshog24
I don't even care about dedicated servers to be honest. Please give me a call when IW goes belly up and you can't play online anymore. Sure it might a while from now, but know dozens of cames that came from now defunct companies that still have massive online followings.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6240138/index.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=features&tag=features;title;2
looking forward to treyarch's "CoD 7"
1) A console specs don't keep improving during it's lifetime -- you have to wait for the next generation. You can keep upgrading a PC. If you build your own gaming rig today and select the processor, GPU and mobo wisely, it's performance will be so superior to a PS3 or Xbox it isn't even funny.
2) Keyboard controls allow for more flexibility than game controllers.
3) Mice have a much more fine-grained feel than game controllers.
4) PC versions of games are usually cheaper than console versions. But the gaming rig is more expensive than a console.
Having said that -- you still have to deal with the hassle of installing/uninstalling games, and you don't always have a large online community for multiplayer etc. In terms of simplicity and completeness, console gaming is pretty hard to beat.
- by Muhammad__ November 13, 2009 4:01 PM PST
- Blizzard's StarCraft 2 will probably smash all records.
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