By Ellis Hamburger
Originally published in LEAD Magazine
Ten years ago, if anybody had used “video game profits” and “360 million dollars” in the same sentence, they probably would’ve been dubbed a raving lunatic. But times have changed, and today, Activision Blizzard Inc. announced that their newest title, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” has become the fastest selling (and one of the most profitable) games in history, grossing over 360 million dollars in the United States and in the United Kingdom on its launch day, November 9th.
“Black Ops” comes as the most recent iteration in a long line of critically acclaimed “Call of Duty” titles, which have been lauded for their big-budget action set pieces and incredibly addictive online multiplayer. The multiplayer online aspect of the game has put a spell on teenagers around the country, including students at the University of Michigan. Last year’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” is by all means still a very popular title online for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, and all fans of that game seem to have gone out and purchased the new one without even needing to consult reviewers around the Web. Video game developer Treyarch took the reins from developer Infinity Ward for this title, and seem to have done the series justice, judging from its 87/100 rating on review aggregating website Metacritic.
On November 11th, Stu Parnes, a salesperson at Get Your Game On on Packard and State said that “Modern Warfare 2” was a huge seller for the store, but the demand for “Black Ops” has been unprecedented. The store’s customers are almost exclusively students, according to Parnes, and the store sold out of the game almost immediately for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. “Probably one person comes in every hour looking for the game, and one to two people call in every hour looking for it, but we’ve sold out both our first and second shipments.” Get Your Game On has been trying to order more copies of the game as soon as possible, but the store’s suppliers are even having trouble meeting demand. “We sold almost 70 copies of the game, and we can’t even get our hands on any more right now. Our supplier is completely sold out of the title for Xbox 360.”
A big budget movie such as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” cost around 200 million dollars to make, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, and grossed 400 million in the United States over the months it was in theatres, with 495 million dollar opening weekend. In comparison, “Black Ops” cost about 50 million to produce, and managed to rake in 360 million in a mere matter of hours. Not even the opening weekend of “Avatar” could hope to achieve this kind of milestone. “Black Ops” serves as a testament to the fact that video games are quickly becoming an elemental part of the media industry alongside TV, movies, and music, and might even surpass these industries in gross revenue in the near future. But don’t forget—it only costs ten dollars to see “Transformers” and nearly sixty dollars to secure your own copy of “Black Ops.”
Update – November 18th, 2010: Internal estimates put current “Call of Duty: Black Ops” earnings at over 650 million dollars worldwide.
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