14 DAY TRIAL // Activision, now fully merged with Blizzard, is probably keen on pointing out how its games will dominate the Christmas period, and there's nothing better for this than having an industry analyst endorsing some of the video games you publish.
Mike Hickey, from Janco Partners, says that he expects the World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, to be one of the best selling games in the coming months. As the game has recently reached 11 million subscribers, Hickey thinks that, after launch, the expansion will have a “sell-through of roughly 5 million units in the first month.” It will be interesting to see how many of those who left the World of Warcraft for the Age of Conan, from Funcom, or for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, from Mythic, will now return to the Blizzard-made MMO.
Alongside Wrath of the Lich King, there are clear signs that Call of Duty: World at War, developed by Treyarch, which has just been released, is also seeing a lot of interest from gamers. Pre-orders are higher than those placed for its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and initial sales are also very promising. The game is set in World War II, and the developer promises that the single player will have more depth, while the multiplayer will offer the same level of complexity that Call of Duty 4 introduced.
Wrath of the Lich King launches on November 13, and the game servers are expected to be flooded by players looking to get the game early. Blizzard is betting that the new content, which includes a whole new continent to be explored, Northrend, and a whole new class to be experienced, Death Knight, will appeal both to old-time fans of the MMO, and to newer gamers who come to live the experience of World of Warcraft for the first time.