14 DAY TRIAL // With Call of Duty: Black Ops II now officially announced by publisher Activision Blizzard, analysts have estimated whether the game has the sales potential to match, in 2012, the records set by Modern Warfare 3 and the first Black Ops during previous years.
Jesse Divnich, an analyst watching the video game industry for EEDAR, has told GamesIndustry that “The entire HD market is very soft at the moment, and it is understandable that retailers, publishers, and analysts are likely to be conservative on any Black Ops II forecast.
“Every year we question whether the Call of Duty franchises can set new records, and for the last four years they have proven us wrong. Personally, I wouldn’t under-estimate Activision, even against the odds of a more torpid HD market this holiday season.”
Billy Pidgeon, an analyst for M2, added, “Call of Duty should continue to do very well and is likely to continue to break records as it will sell into a larger installed base of consoles.”
Colin Sebastian of RW Baird believes that Black Ops II will sell roughly the same amount of copies that Modern Warfare 3 managed during 2011.
Michael Pachter, who works for Wedbush Morgan, also says that the current size of the Call of Duty franchise means that it has little room to grow so Black Ops II will be roughly equal to Modern Warfare 3 when it comes to sales.
Since Activision introduced pre-orders for Black Ops II retailers have announced that their number has already surpassed that for Modern Warfare 3.
The new game will take gamers to the near future and will see them fight against a lone hacker who managed to take control over the drone and robotic tanks of the United States.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on November 13 of this year.