Call of Duty: Ghosts Sales Are "Troubling," Analyst Says

[Andy Chalk]

Call of Duty: Ghosts Sales Are "Troubling," Analyst Says

Call of Duty: Ghosts is a big hit but its sales are running significantly lower than last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Call of Duty: Ghosts may well be the best-selling game of the year, but it's still trailing Black Ops 2 sales by 19 percent year-over-year. Activision had previously warned that the transition between console generations would negatively impact sales, but analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen and Co. said the situation is worse than the publisher predicted.

"Upon further reflection, we think the numbers are a bit more troubling than they first appeared," Creutz wrote in a note to investors. "While the year-over-year gap is only 19 percent thus far, that includes two extra weeks of sales for the 360 and PS3 versions. Against 2011′s [Modern Warfare 3], where the difference is only one week, the title is down 32 percent life-to-date."

In other words, if Ghosts didn't have an extra week of sales (the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Ghosts came out November 5, while Black Ops 2 came out on November 12), the gap between it and Black Ops 2 would be even greater. The later release of the game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One accounts for some of the slide but Creutz said that neither console has enough of a user base to make up the overall difference.

The gap could grow even wider over the vital month of December, he added, which would leave the game in a pretty bleak position. "We don't think it is out of the question that the title could wind up comparing down 20 percent to 25 percent year-over-year, which is appreciably worse than the down 10 to 15 percent that we think is baked in to guidance," he said.

Source: VentureBeat [http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/16/analyst-call-of-duty-ghosts-numbers-are-troubling/]


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[Ed130 The Vanguard]

So the MMS genre or Spunkgargleweewee if you follow Yahtzee is experiencing a contraction?


Perhaps now the AAA industry can begin to move forward again.

 

[Psychobabble]

Might be troubling to them but for me it's refreshing. Hopefully this sends a message to the suit wearing potato heads that people are getting tired of just rehashing the same old shit. And that maybe it's time to green light some new ideas rather than just tarting up the same doddering old whore year after year.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

The issue with Ghosts is that while it offers a 'different' setting and situation, it's all in all the same as the games prior. A reskinned Modern Warfare 3 basically. Infinity Ward is essentially a new studio, so they played it safe, but there was nothing new offered even by Call of Duty standards. And this shows the players are not up to buying a 60+ USD game after Black Ops 2 and Modern Warfare 3. I won't be surprised if the next Treyarch CoD game (If Sledgehammer Games doesn't make a CoD as well) has a lower sales record too.

 

[Dreadman75]

So the cracks in the armor of the CoD franchise are beginning to widen to the point that even industry professionals won't be able to make excuses for it? I don't see any problem with this. From what I hear the series has been skating along with minimal innovation for years. This could be that kick in the ass needed to jump-start the creativity again.

 

[STENDEC1]

Well how 'bout that? You sh*t out a cookie-cutter sequel year after year, and suddenly people stop paying for it! Who'd have thunk it?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They have a lot more competition now, and people are noticing it because they're tired of CoD. Also, Activision isn't doing anything to reinvent the series after 6 years. So this is not unexpected.

 

[josemlopes]

Because the same didnt happen with Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero /sarcasm

Im suprised it lasted as long as it did though

 

[oldtaku]

This is great news! Make the next one all dogs.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So the MMS genre or Spunkgargleweewee if you follow Yahtzee is experiencing a contraction?

I would say Call of Duty is suffering a contraction rather than the MMS in general, because the MMS genre more or less died with Homefront and Medal of Honor: Doorfighter. BF4 seems to be selling pretty well buggy release be damned (just like BF3, BC2, BF2...) and will likely keep selling at a steady rate for the next two years at least (just like BF3, BC2, BF2...).

Other MMS games don't really exist now, Crysis is a sci-fi game, ARMA is it's own thing entirely (and doing really well by the way), Halo, Titanfall and Destiny will all be sci-fi themed (welcome back to the nineties!).

Activision are paying for releasing almost the same game every year since Modern Warfare, with the same 'America the Underdog' plot since MW2, much like Guitar Hero, even if it is the biggest franchise in the world right now, eventually people will get bored with it. Although Activision haven't done quite the hatchet job they did to Guitar Hero, Call of Duty seems to have had it's sales peak at MW3, now it's time for the rot.

 

[fix-the-spade]

This could be that kick in the ass needed to jump-start the creativity again.

The creativity was West, Zampella and friends, they and everyone they thought useful are now working at Respawn on Titanfall, those people made CoD1, they made CoD4 (it has to be said, against Activision's demands for more WW2), now they're making the game they pitched to Activision five years ago, for EA.

I wonder, would the cost of paying Infinity Ward's bonuses have been offset by continued growth and/or new franchises from them, or does Activision still think it made the right move kicking them out to try (and fail) avoid paying?

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Perhaps now the AAA industry can begin to move forward again.

Probably not quite yet if the game industry is anything like the television industry. I mean, American Idol is an absolute nosedive, but FOX continues to give it new season after new season. Once a company finds something with the level of success both those things have shown, they're going to latch on to it until it bursts into flames.

 

[spartandude]

They have a lot more competition now, and people are noticing it because they're tired of CoD. Also, Activision isn't doing anything to reinvent the series after 6 years. So this is not unexpected.

Call Of Duty: Ghosts is completely different, it has amazing fish AI

Seriously OT, While this is good news to me, I dont think we should be celebrating the downfall of CoD just yet, all it would take is some slight differences and good advertising to bring it back up. But hopefully this trend continues, but then something else will take its place and we will be pissed at that.

Capcha, How interesting, very true isnt it?

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Yay!

Hopefully now Activision will realise that they will have to put some actual fucking effort into their iterations!

 

[SecondPrize]

That's gotta be disturbing for the devs, considering they only know how to make one game over and over again.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Perhaps now the AAA industry can begin to move forward again.

Probably not quite yet if the game industry is anything like the television industry. I mean, American Idol is an absolute nosedive, but FOX continues to give it new season after new season. Once a company finds something with the level of success both those things have shown, they're going to latch on to it until it bursts into flames.

Oh I don't give a damm if Activision crashes or at least looses millions trying to ride this to the end, I just want to see the other AAA publishers not play 'follow the COD leader' so much.

 

[Vegosiux]

Why do I suddenly have my head full of imagining an Activision exec played by Brian Blessed, going "I DO NOT LIKE THIS NEWS, BRING ME SOME OTHER NEWS!"

I suppose that dog didn't do its job, huh. Naturally. Should have been a cat.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Maybe they should make the next game where you play as a team of dogs. Or an actual ghost soldier getting revenge. Either way it would be something original instead of the usual stagnate crap that release every year.