14 DAY TRIAL // Modern Warfare is released worldwide on the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, and the PlayStation 3, and initial reports are showing that it could actually live up to the Activision hype of “the biggest videogames release ever.” Michael Pachter, who is an analyst of the videogame market for Wedbush Morgan, has said that he expects the game to bring in half a billion dollars in revenue in the first week on sale and that Modern Warfare 2 could actually sell more than 10 million copies in the first three months of its existence. The release of the sequel has prompted the first game in the series to actually top the PC games charts in North America, after online retailer Amazon has slashed its price for it.
Pachter has also said “The elephant in the room remains the challenged music category. "The company sold over $500 million worth of Guitar Hero games in last year’s fourth quarter, and we think it will be challenged to sell much more than $400 million in music games this holiday,” Until now the Guitar Hero franchise has brought in about 200 million dollars. Thomas Tippl, who is the chief financial officer of Activision, has recently said that the series will exceed the results posted last year.
The music game genre is not helped by the fact that the price point is over 100 dollars, in a period when the potential customer is pretty strapped for cash because of the economic situation. Another problem is the saturation of the market, with most of the fans content to hang on to their already bought videogame and to get additional tracks via downloadable content. Still, Activision seems dedicated to offering more Guitar Hero games, with a new installment set for 2010 and a sequel for DJ Hero also planned.