Activision Lowers Expectations For New Call Of Duty

Publisher says 2010 will be more competitive.

by Jim Reilly

February 11, 2010 - During Activision's 2009 financial call, President and CEO Mike Griffith said this year's Call of Duty title won't have the same level of success that Modern Warfare 2 saw this past holiday, where sales reached over $1 billion worldwide. This is mostly due to what the publisher is calling a more competitive year.

"We've consistently grown the Call of Duty franchise revenues year-over-year for the past seven years, and we expect to continue our strategy of annualizing the franchise," he said. "At the same time, we recognize that Modern Warfare 2 was an unprecedented success, driven in part by the game-quality, our retail and marketing execution, and by the relatively friendly competitive environment."

"We expect to have a more difficult competitive environment this year, and therefore, we've not planned on repeating the same level of success as we enjoyed in 2009," Griffith added. "That said, we're still bullish on this year's title and we do see upside potential if we execute well by engaging the much-larger set of consumers who were introduced to the Call of Duty franchise in 2009."

Electronic Arts will go head-to-head this holiday with the release of its new, modernized Medal of Honor title. The publisher is also set to release Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in March, which CEO John Riccitiello said is the starting point for "taking back" the Call of Duty series. Halo: Reach, Microsoft's flagship first-party title, will also be battling it out this fall.




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