14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Activision Blizzard has announced that their first-person shooter blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops has managed to sell enough copies to register 1 billion United States dollars in sales and is on track to break other records set by its predecessor Modern Warfare 2.
The previous release in the Call of Duty series had to wait until January 13 of this year in order to reach the 1 billion dollars in sales barrier after its release on November 9, 2009.
Bobby Kotick, who is the chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, has stated when the sales announcement was made, “In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and "Avatar" have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly.”
He added, “This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise.”
In the first five days on sale, Call of Duty: Black Ops has managed to earn 650 million dollars, which is about 100 million more than Modern Warfare 2 during the same time frame.
Analysts have suggested that Black Ops has the ability to sell quicker than its forerunner in the short term, but it will be unable to reach the same life time total because of the lower brand recognition of developer Treyarch.
Activision Blizzard is keen to keep selling as many copies as possible of its flagship first person shooter and has already announced that it is planning to deliver the first downloadable content pack, called First Strike, during the month of February.
The pricing and the exact content of the pack have not yet been revealed, but it's pretty sure that Activision will sell it for 15 dollars, the same as the Stimulus Package for Modern Warfare 2.
Another DLC pack is also probably planned for Black Ops.