Activision: MW2 sold 4.7m in one day News

Sigh...

$310 doesn't sound a lot. £188m does though. I guess the dollar has really strengthened against sterling...

compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging

He left out "hyped to within an inch of it's life".

Surely those who bought it didn't yet know it was "compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging"? You wouldn't know that until you'd actually played it.

"Well marketed and the much-anticipated sequel to one of the biggest online games ever" would have been closer to the true reason it sold.

Tom Bramwell, you poked fun at in a previous news story at just how much coverage you are giving this.
But you just keep posting more and more stories.
As a previous comments-user said, just have one news 'feature' or item and keep adding to it.

This site is embarrassing this week

I guess having played the first one you could kind of assume the sequel would be as much those things and then more.

It's the biggest release ever, there are going to be stories about it all year. Get used to it, proverbial 'oh not another one' comments are worse and aren't going to stop the site publishing news stories. Waste of your own time crying about it.

@EarlBassett - to be fair, it was interesting to hear quite how all-conquering the game has been. Any uncharted territory is news - day one sales of 4.7m copies in the UK and US is unprecedented.

If you don't like it, go read something else instead of whinging on every bloody MW2 thread like a broken record. You've made your point.

Proof, if any, that people are idiots and that marketing works.

That record-breaking number means the publisher made approximately $310 or £188m in 24 hours.

This makes no sense, unless I'm using my calculator wrong. It's suggesting that for every sale, Activision made £40 (or $66).

As people are presumably buying the games from shops and not from Activision's head office, surely Activision only make a bit more than half that? They must be selling the games to retailers at around £25, not £40, right?

It's such an obvious error that I can't believe Eurogamer would make it. Surely I must have done the maths wrong or something?

Activision boss Mike Griffith called the Call of Duty franchise a "cultural phenomenon", and said the "shattering" of records was due to a MW2 being "compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging".

He forgot "marketed to the nth degree".

@skillian

My calculator agrees with yours. £40 * 4.7m = £188m.

Edit: also $65.95 * 4.7m = $310.

I can only assume that there's some lazy maths involved somewhere.

About as lazy as mine. ;)

It doesn't matter what the shops charged the consumer, every shop buys their copies at a fixed price and it's *that* cash that goes to Activision. Same amount, whether the shop is selling for 26 quid or 260 quid.

Its amazing the results you get when you make the same game twice and stick a 2 on the end

And i still dont want or have one *high five*

@justanotherdave

Not really, as 3+ million of those 4.7m were sold in the states and £40 is the equivalent of approx. $65.95 so they would have to have sold it to retailers there for $66 and as retailers in the states (like Amazon and Gamestop) are selling it for $60 I doubt it (they're not going to absorb a loss of $6 on each one).

This figure is bogus: Activision couldn't have made anything like £188m from 4.7m copies, it does not compute.

supermarkets loss leaders are usually sold at cost not at a loss, because they order in bulk they usually sell them for less than smaller retailers buy them for but rarely if ever sell them under cost.

EDIT thus £26 is likely the cost to the supermarket for the sale, after tax, activision is likely getting £20-21 a copy in the UK at least.

EDITEDIT oh that's before the printers/distributors cut too so you can take a few quid of that.

"Waa waa waa! A game I haven't played is liked by a lot of people and sold a lot of copies! I wish everyone didn't like the previous game and also judged the sequel to be identical in spite of evidence to the contrary like I have!"

Does that sound familiar to anyone?

This figure is bogus: Activision couldn't have made anything like £188m from 4.7m copies, it does not compute.

That's the estimated worldwide gross, not how much Activision have actually made. It's just been worded wrongly.

The situation's roughly similar to how a film's opening weekend gross only tells you the ticket sales at cinemas, not how much money the studio has made. A film has to gross roughly 3 times its production costs to make a profit. In the case of MW2, these sales figures are an estimate of how much money passed through shops and online stores, not how much Activision made from unit sales.

The game is good, and I imagine a lot of people (except PC multiplayer gamers) are pretty happy with it, especially for £26 or whatever cut rate price they got it for. That's a bloody bargain.

Why all the hate? Jesus H Christ. Some people are never happy! :)

@skilian

I made the same comment yesterday in another EG news item. There seems to be no explanation of the workings, and a confusion with Sales, Profit and Retail Price.

The really interesting thing is volume of units moved.

and there are "Hardened" and "Goggled" edition to cost you more money

"Proof, if any, that people are idiots and that marketing works."

Or, alternatively, that the last game was quite good and they wanted more of the same.

I genuinely can't understand all the vitriol being pissed at this game. Reminds me of that quote... "it is not enough that I succeed... everyone else must fail". So it's a big title with an overblown marketing budget and annoying console-centric features that have honked off all the PC gamers. And yet it's still sold a bazillion copies, and everyone seems to have the hump about it.

@ cragtek

"to be fair, it was interesting to hear quite how all-conquering the game has been. Any uncharted territory is news - day one sales of 4.7m copies in the UK and US is unprecedented.
If you don't like it, go read something else instead of whinging on every bloody MW2 thread like a broken record. You've made your point."

As I said yesterday to you, there is nothing else on this site to read.
Everywhere I look it is fucking Call Of Duty. Reviews, news, Digital Foundry, advertising....

@EarlBassett

You must be blind then - there's plenty of CoD stuff sure, but there's only 7 items (and the advertising) on the EG frontpage, one of which is classic CoD release on PS3 network, and one is a tech discussion which is fairly interesting.

How about you get a grip?

Blimey thats some USD to GBP exchange rate right there...

I wouldn't say there's alot of hate for this game just alot of people bored of fucking hearing about it 24/7.
If the game redefined the genre then im sure people would stfu and suck it up but the fact is its cod4 with tiny improvements.
Ive enjoyed the game but jesus its far from perfect, the single player plays like a fucking fun fare shooting gallery and the story is like a rejected episode of 24.
The multi player is quick and fast but apart from the perk upgrades its the same as before, actually if anything its become more frustrating by level 53 virgins launching 300 air strikes and helicopter attacks 24/7 unbalancing the game.

Ill leave it to bad company 2 to show how you actually do a war based online shooter

I was gonna comment and say wait for the halo/bioshock-esque backlash from the hardcore, but it looks like its already started.
I can't judge mind, haven't played the second one (yet) nor the first. Will give it a try tonight.

@Eighthours
This figure is bogus: Activision couldn't have made anything like £188m from 4.7m copies, it does not compute.

That's the estimated worldwide gross, not how much Activision have actually made. It's just been worded wrongly.

If that is the case then that's fine, my issue is with the statement that EG made: "That record-breaking number means the publisher made approximately $310 or £188m in 24 hours."

Like I said, that figure is bogus when you apply it to that statement. I assume Activision and Infinity Ward make something more like (approx, finger in the air) £20 per copy between them, that's still a damn good profit margin (or it will be, after costs etc.).

Oh come on.. just how much money is activision paying you to run all these stories?

After hearing about how short the game is, and knowing i rarely play games online. I've decided to wait for 4 million of those 4.7 million sales to start flooding the 2nd hand market as people who dont play games online finish it and return it.. Then i can pick it up for $10 - which for me is about the right price for a 5 hour game.

"Like I said, that figure is bogus when you apply it to that statement. I assume Activision and Infinity Ward make something more like (approx, finger in the air) £20 per copy between them,"


At least 1/3rd of the price of the game goes to retail. Another large chunk goes to the platform holder (sony/msoft in this case). Then by the time you've factored in duplication, distribution, warehouse costs, marketting (all these news stories/articles dont pay for themselves), etc etc.. The publisher problably gets less than 5 quid a copy (probably less than that even)

lesson: stop making pixar movie junk, make shoot go bang now games

Surely the headline should read:

“Analyst Michael Pachter Almost Gets Something Right”

That’s more newsworthy than a game selling a unit or five.

Those figures will be revenue, not profit for Activision. £40 a copy is about right for the average isn't it?

I probably give this game an 8.5/10. The single player is a bit average and took me under 7 hours to complete. The multiplayer is pretty cool for the most part.

How about you do one more MW2 article explaining the SP story in plain English.

It is the Transformers 2 of games.

why is this still on top of the news? don't they have enough advertising by now?

This'll outsell GTA.

This'll outsell GTA. Well its made a better start. But the question is will the next GTA outsell Modern Warfare 2?

No the question is (according to the internets): Will mario outsell it?

I finished the campaign this morning. After starting it the night before.
:(

It was a thrilling ride, I have to admit allthough a lot of sections felt like "more of the same" compaired to MF 1. Still, some nice twists and a very, very ludicrous plot.
This felt more like being in a Michael Bay action movie than a wargame.
Amazing animations and very nice graphics, and it even ran well on my laptop!

No Mw2 backlash from me - it's a good game.
Just absolutely fucking sick of reading about it on here.

"there's plenty of CoD stuff sure, but there's only 7 items (and the advertising) on the EG frontpage,"

Only 7 items - about one game - on the EG front page.
You're right, that's hardly anything.

Proof, if any, that people are idiots and that marketing works.

+1. Proof also, that anyone who claims "I stand above hype and I am not affected by advertising" is as much of a lie as saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman".

This Friday's eurogamer article: 'First weekend since Modern Warfare 2 released!'

@Rodchenko : Tell me about it. I like to think i'm not effected by hype. But here i am, I'm not a fan of fps games, i certainly dont play them online. I know the single player is short and not worth the money...

But yet - why do i want this game so much?!? Its crazy the way that marketting/hype gets you! I'll fall for it and be disapointed.. but i've promised myself not until i can get it cheap 2nd hand...

what sneetch said, they simply built on the success of the first MW. I didnt see WAW selling this well.

L4D2 next tuesday so I really don't give a crap what happens to MW2. I would have been even happier if I didn't have an un-opened copy sitting on my table thanks to an over zealous friend. As it's a gift I can't even sell the bloody thing to CEX for a profit!

*Sob*