This holiday season’s biggest entertainment blockbuster likely will be a sequel to a popular franchise, with jarring depictions of war and an intricate story of good versus evil. It could easily rake in more than last year’s record $155 million opening weekend for “The Dark Knight.”
But this blockbuster is not a movie.
It is “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” a video game that Activision Blizzard Inc. released today and fans worldwide are expected to spend at least half a billion dollars on the game in the first week.
That would at least match last year’s “Grand Theft Auto IV,” which was the most successful video game release in history and might have been the top entertainment launch ever.
Like the previous five “Call of Duty” games, which are all rated “M” for mature (not for kids under 17), this one lets players shoot their way through a complex series of scenes. The game’s developer, Infinity Ward, spent two years creating realistic graphics that are amplified in many players’ homes by big-screen, high-definition TVs sets and powerful speakers
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
It almost certainly will. It’s in the rare category of ultra-mainstream-cool-to-play games like GTA and Madden so basically everyone with a 360 or PS3 is going to buy it. You should do a story on students’ thoughts on the airport-shooting scene in the game that’s causing a ton of controversy.
Let’s think about this…
A ticket to go see Dark Knight probably averaged at $9.
A copy of Modern Warfare 2 costs around $60.
It’s simple math, and it will for sure “rake in” more than Dark Knight. Is this really news though? Did you really have to devote an article on this website to a video game’s release? No offense TM, but it’s a little bit obvious when it is a slow news day…
Richard Neve-
While I can see your point in comparing MW2 to a single movie, considering that the 2008 worldwide revenue for cinema was $571 million and $21.3 billion for video games, even with the purchase price difference I’d say the release of what could possibly be the highest selling and grossing title of all time is relevant news given the industry’s strength.
This is St. Thomas. It’s ALWAYS a slow news day… but I agree with Alex in that there’s probably more to be discussed about this game other than sales.
For one thing, this was posted under “Diversions,” not “News.” So I think that is appropriate. But it was big news nationally, so I don’t think posting it on Tommie Media says anything about the “slow news day” here. In fact, it probably could have been more of a headline story and that would have been okay too.