14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Activision Blizzard has announced that their first person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops has managed to record sales of more than 650 million dollars in its first five day period of worldwide sales, breaking the record for an entertainment launch, established by the previous installment Modern Warfare 2, which managed to generate 550 million dollars in the same period.
Robert Kotick, the Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, has stated, “Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment.”
He added, “The title's success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media. The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard's leadership role in online entertainment.”
Activision also cites statistics linked to Call of Duty: Black Ops offered by Microsoft for the Xbox 360, saying that close to 6 million hours of multiplayer gaming had been used in game before November 9 was through.
We have reviewed Call of Duty: Black Ops here at Softpedia and found it generally more satisfying than last year's Modern Warfare 2, with a story that makes sense and embraces the tropes of the Cold War setting and with action sequences that still feel over scripted but offer more variety and more interesting characters.
Both Microsoft and Sony are claiming that their home consoles, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, represent the best way to experience the new first person shooter.
Analyst predict that the game will top sales charts for November and be the best selling video game of the year, also picking up some Game of the Year awards.