Activision: new COD won't beat MW2

By Robert Purchese Published 10 February, 2010

New Tony Hawk, DJ Hero, Bond in 2010.

Activision, perhaps understandably, is not expecting the new Call of Duty game to top Modern Warfare 2's record breaking performance.

Boss Mike Griffith said the publisher has "not planned on repeating the same level of success on this year's title", partly because of tougher competition expected around Christmas - last year's flock migrated to Q1 2010.

Nevertheless, Activision is still "bullish" with expectations of both performance and quality from the new Call of Duty 2010, reported GamesIndustry.biz.

Modern Warfare 2, developed by Infinity Ward, smashed most game-related sales record. The title has gone on to become Activision Blizzard's third billion-dollar game in the space of two years.

Activision also announced plans to release a new Guitar Hero game and DJ Hero 2, as well as an additional Tony Hawk title that will use the new skateboard peripheral. Griffith noted that ratings for Tony Hawk Ride were "not as high as we'd hoped for" and said the peripheral "could potentially have different applications in the future".

Activision said there will be new games in the James Bond and Spiderman franchises later this year, too.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 6 months ago

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  • Cider-X #1 2 years ago

    Why bother with Tony Hawk games... It's a dead franchise and has been so for some years now. Ride didn't do them any favors.

  • LiveForever #2 2 years ago

    Activision seriously needs a new franchise. What comes up up up is inevitably gona fall. Me thinks they are there.
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/10 @ 23:40

  • SixFootHalfling #3 2 years ago

    "Griffith noted that ratings for Tony Hawk Ride were "not as high as we'd hoped for" and said the peripheral "could potentially have different applications in the future"."

    What different applications?
    It didn't work as a skateboard, it wont work as a snowboard either, so leaves every game related thing I can think of out.
    Maybe he'll use it as a method of bludgeoning the designer to death?

  • Murton #4 2 years ago

    Another Guitar Hero, well here's hoping it's more like 3 than 5 when it comes to track listing, it won't be, but we can still hope.

    Tony Hawk seems to have been retired by Skate and CoD is getting stale too. Activision need to stop pouring all of their money into these three franchises and get some IPs going. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have believed I would say this but, Activision need to be more like EA.

  • Eraysor #5 2 years ago

    Guitar Hero needs to go back to what made the first two (and maybe three, but I prefer Harmonix) games good. More guitar focused tracks! I miss the random gems like Devil Went Down to Georgia and Cliffs of Dover. Hell, I even enjoyed the boss battles!

  • mcmonkeyplc #6 2 years ago

    Yes that's right follow the path EA had. Cause that worked out so well for them. You fucking dickheads, I won't shed a tear when your sales flop and your investors run.

  • Mark1412 #7 2 years ago

    Yeah Sharxtreme, they've lost so many customers they've just recorded puny Q4 earnings of $1.56 billion dollars, positively woeful!

    But lets all boycott Activision, and lets all pretend that all that money they reap doesn't help keep this industry we all love alive. Get a grip.

  • JayScott #8 2 years ago

    Isn't the article about him saying they won't sell as many?

  • fknetwork #9 2 years ago

    People that bought that skateboard thing must be well pissed off i'd say, maybe why they are making a second and final game for it so people that bought the board don't feel so suicidal lol

  • HuggyAtHome #10 2 years ago

    Would be good if the Bond game was something more original rather than a rubbish film tie-in. Never going to happen though.

    Agree with the views on Tony H games but COD/MW isn't all bad. If you feel that strongly about it then why play it and complain. Either don't buy it when it first comes out and pick up a cheaper used copy, or just don't buy it at all. The only thing that I dislike more than a Kotick soundbite is people telling me what games or publisher I must enjoy or avoid. That's up to me to choose.

  • Kill_Crazy #11 2 years ago

    @SHARXTREME

    George Bush said:
    "Fool me once, shame on ypu.
    Fool me twice, shame on, err... you?"

    Because he is a complete dickhead. I see why you think he's great.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/10 @ 08:27

  • KDR_11k #12 2 years ago

    I think it was "err.. you... You can't get fooled again!"

    Anyway, the next CoD will be by Treyarch. Of course if they feel it'll sell less then why do they do it anyway and risk hurting the franchise overall?

  • SirDespard #13 2 years ago

    "Griffith noted that ratings for Tony Hawk Ride were "not as high as we'd hoped for" and said the peripheral "could potentially have different applications in the future"."

    Suggested appplications
    1) Draft excluder
    2) Stick a piece of wood on it for a small coffee table
    3) See-saw for small toddlers

  • flaming.carrot #14 2 years ago

    Probably because MW2 was disappointing in retrospect. MW1 was exceptional at the time, WAW was just about different enough to warrant a quick playthrough, MW2 was too unoriginal and slightly dated in the end - will people really look back at this game as a classic in years to come?

  • MiniAmin #15 2 years ago

    Give us proper split-screen in the next COD (as in, a horizontal line across the centre of the screen). And sales will increase (well probably not) but I'd like to see it anyway. There's a very sorry generation of gamers who will never know the true value of local co-op as a standard feature in Action games, back in my day we had Battletoads, Streets of Rage, Micro machines - none of these actually used a horizontal line but still...

    /gets blog
    //old school, gets filofax instead

  • bluem4gic #16 2 years ago

    James Bond is dead I won't be fooled a second time round

    Plus not interested in Call of Duty Vietnam
    Edited by 2 at 11/02/10 @ 10:18

  • geeza2020 #17 2 years ago

    another use for the RIDE board, melt it down and try to get high off the toxic plastic fumes without getting poisoned! It'll be more fun than Tony Hawks shite game anyway.

  • sfp_noodle #18 2 years ago

    another COD was inevitable but i do find it odd tht actvisioni continue to invest money in the tony hawks franchise. it died pretty much when they went all 'storyline' with wasteland. they must have signed a long deal with the hawkster, but i strongly doubt they'll bother renewing it once it ends. either way, if it ends up being shit and sells fuck all tht'll be a positive, if only it means less money in koticks pocket

  • actionfitz #19 2 years ago

    at least there better be Zombies :)

  • ckyman2 #20 2 years ago

    hahaha finally

    take two and rockstar shall inherit the earth

    mwahhhahhhh!!!

  • hazelam #21 2 years ago

    of course it won't because you alienated most of the fans of the series with the current game.

  • TitusCrow #22 2 years ago

    *moves shares out of Activision*

  • Murton #23 2 years ago

    Agree with the views on Tony H games but COD/MW isn't all bad. If you feel that strongly about it then why play it and complain. Either don't buy it when it first comes out and pick up a cheaper used copy, or just don't buy it at all.

    I didn't, COD has been a little stale since long before MW2. Last one I bought was COD3 and even that came in my PS3 bundle. I've played MW and WaW at my brothers place and WaW just failed to grab me, MW interested me but I wasn't prepared to pay full retail 6 months after release and the price never came down so I got other more interesting games.

    Another use for the RIDE controller, attach wheels to it and make it into a real skateboard.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #24 2 years ago

    At least Blizzard have an excuse why their games may be lower quality now - Activision is throwing it away on doomed to fail control methords

  • dacicus #25 2 years ago

    New COD won't beat MW2. So from what I understand, they are saying that the next COD (kinda of a Activision's version of FIFA) it's considered to be worse then the MW2, even by their own people.
    Way to go, Activision.

  • sneetch #26 2 years ago

    @actionfitz
    at least there better be Zombies :)

    This time it'll be vampire zombies. They're raising the bar after all. ;)

    Two years from now it'll be werewolf vampire zombies.

  • garlabs #27 6 months ago

    mw2 is a bit cartoonish, you think? -GAR Labs