CoD: Black Ops Launch To Be Activision's Biggest

[Dynasty]

Ohhh how I love you Activision...

No, wait, thats me poking at your funny bone again.

The launch for Call of Duty: Black Ops is going to be huge.

Really huge.

During Activision's Q2 fiscal earnings call this afternoon, the publisher continuously emphasized how much bigger the marketing budget for this year's title will be compared to last, and highlighted the fact pre-sales continue to outpace Modern Warfare 2 from last year.

"This year's Black Ops will release on more platforms than ever before, and continues to pace ahead of last year's record setting Modern Warfare 2 in terms of per-sales and consumer awareness metrics," said Activision COO Thomas Tippl.

"The game continues to gain momentum, and based on the traction we have already established with our partners around the world, we expect Black Ops will yet again drive Call of Duty to be the entertainment event of the year."

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick also said on the call the publisher is backing Black Ops' launch with its biggest financial investment in the company's 31 year history, adding this year's title isn't just for hardcore gamers.

"This is, across the board, the biggest investment that we've ever made in the launch of a title," Kotick said. "The market opportunity is bigger than it's ever been, the install base of hardware is bigger than it's ever been, and the product has incredibly broad appeal, but it also has a whole host of functions that will be unique to the core consumer."

Kotick also said Black Ops' competition this holiday isn't just other shooters from major publishers, such as Medal of Honor or Halo: Reach, and that Activision hopes the title reaches new audiences.

"There's a lot of competition, not just from games, but from a whole host of other things you can do with your leisure time, and this is something we think has the potential to break through and appeal to a much broader consumer base than ever before," he added.

Call of Duty: Black Ops launches in North America on November 9.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/111/1110725p1.html

Now seriously, with the *sigh* success that MW2 had, do they REALLY need to push this one harder?

The only reason I can think of is that because it's being done by the special cousin of Activision that is Treyarch, jumping around looking for attention. So we give it to them and they disappoint.

So Im guessing Activision want to push this one harder because they know people will be thinking the last Treyarch of the series was pretty crap in comparison.

They have a point about the competition though. I can see MoH doing fairly well, I kinda hope it does even though it might as well be called MoH: Modern Warfare. Plus there's the most monotonous, predictable, dull, uninteresting, disappointing and generic shooter series ever trying to claw it's way back; Halo Reach.

Personally I will be buying Assassin's Creed Brotherhood over Black Ops any day, even though its out a week after CoD, so they can reduce 1 sale right now from their expected figures.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Oh look another piece of shit brought to us by the good people at Treyarch and Activision.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

oh FFS!!! I thought that every IP had a shelf life or an expiration date of some sort. I never would have thought that ACTI could sustain the critical mass they achieved with MW2 until MW3 (Just like how i dont think halo will ever get as big as it did with halo 3 until halo 4 comes out); how in the name of christ does CoD manage to outdo MW2 before MW3?

In most peoples eyes the treyarch projects may as well be spin offs anyway. **** all of you ******** who buy this **** :flame:. I would rather buy MoH over black ops just to spite them (tho i wont but still)

They have a point about the competition though. I can see MoH doing fairly well, I kinda hope it does even though it might as well be called MoH: Modern Warfare. Plus there's the most monotonous, predictable, dull, uninteresting, disappointing and generic shooter series ever trying to claw it's way back; Halo Reach.

Personally I will be buying Assassin's Creed Brotherhood over Black Ops any day, even though its out a week after CoD, so they can reduce 1 sale right now from their expected figures.

I completely agree with you entirely the only fall games i want are AC brotherhood and vanquish

 

[<RJMC>]

so who didnt expect this from activision?

and consumer awareness metrics

yeah right inventing another thing to look important

activision executive: here lets see the consumer awarenes metric...*pulls out ihpone whit litle lights* lets press the button..*light start blinking*see we are in the top of the consumer awareness by a shiton of percent!

 

[Barnz]

Can't wait to play Black Ops. It's going to be an amazing game.

 

[ríomhaire]

I hope it turns out to be terrible. I honestly do. I hope to see the headline "New Call of Duty breaks record for most returned game ever".

 

[Eejit]

I hope it turns out to be terrible. I honestly do. I hope to see the headline "New Call of Duty breaks record for most returned game ever".

That would be wildly amusing.

 

[VictimOfScience]

That would be wildly amusing.

Hahaha! Yes it would. I REALLY hope it comes to pass. Seriously, screw all of these guys and their shit attitudes towards gaming.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

but the MP in MW2 was already broken enough, ostracised the hardcore gaming community and apparently several prominent hardcore competitive tournament players refuse to play it anymore either. What would it take for people to stop buying this crap?

 

[StarBob]

We all know it's just going to be another clone of a clone of a clone. Considering the state of gamers these days though... it will probably be the top selling game of all time... because it seems like kids out there these days love those clones. I blame console gamers... I always do.

 

[63]

Got a few copies prordered, Black Ops is easily looking like the best shooter of the year.

 

[Eejit]

but the MP in MW2 was already broken enough, ostracised the hardcore gaming community and apparently several prominent hardcore competitive tournament players refuse to play it anymore either. What would it take for people to stop buying this crap?

I'm really not sure. Even if it somehow turned out to be the FPS equivalent of Big Rigs millions would still lap it up.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I'll play it.

 

[T-6000]

Unfortunately I'm too burnt out of the COD series to get exited about this one. Hell, I'm too burnt out on all these modern day shooters.

 

[Dynasty]

Even the next Operation Flashpoint is going modern warfare.

I dont actually know why CoD does so well anymore.

 

[Viperidae]

Even the next Operation Flashpoint is going modern warfare.

Uninformed. The Flashpoint series is no longer developed by Bohemia Interactive. OFP2 isn't the sequel to OFP.

 

[T-6000]

The only reason I can think of is that because it's being done by the special cousin of Activision that is Treyarch, jumping around looking for attention. So we give it to them and they disappoint.

So Im guessing Activision want to push this one harder because they know people will be thinking the last Treyarch of the series was pretty crap in comparison.

Actually, that kinda reminds me of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. All bugs has to do is wave his hands at the audience and he gets applause with such ease. While Daffy does everything he can, dances & doing tricks as best as he can, and instead of clapping he gets crickets.

But on a more serious note, while Treyarch did fumble with COD3 I thought they did a great job with World at War. My 2 gripes was that it could have used a few more missions and the A.I. would act pretty wonky on occasion. But I liked that it took us over to the Pacific and that it had a darker and grimer feel. I know I am going to get alot of flak for this, but I think World at War is what COD2 should have been. In COD2 I was disappointed that we didn't get any pacific levels and it lost most of the grim feel from the first COD title. But all in all, I think for the most part I am burnt out of the COD series. Black Ops seems more like another Modern Warfare clone, and I'm already getting sick and tired of all these Modern Shooters. I am hoping that one day COD delves in some Science Fiction. And it doesn't have to have laser guns and alien invaders. It can have more updated versions of modern day weapons and feature a war between Colonies and an Earth Government or a war between 2 colonies. Kinda like the Killzone series.

It's also a shame that Singularity couldn't get this kind of media buzz on release. In fact, most other shooters under Activision's wing doesn't seem to get much attention. Raven's past 2 games, Wolfenstein and Singularity, didn't get much of a promotion compared to the COD series. In fact, Activision is ironically putting Raven up to making DLC for Black Ops.

 

[YROC]

While we're on topic, anyone know what engine Black Ops is using?

 

[Barnz]

Quake Engine

 

[YROC]

best be trollan

 

[T-6000]

While we're on topic, anyone know what engine Black Ops is using?

Call of Duty 4 engine, best of my knowledge. I'm not sure how much of the engine code has been modified, if it has been modified at all.

 

[YROC]

I thought it was upgraded for mw2. They called it IW4.

I was just curious.

 

[T-6000]

Oops, my mistake. They are actually going to use a heavily modified version of the engine they used for World at War (which was their own modified version of the Modern Warfare Engine), according to this interview:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-call-of/100687?type=flv

 

[YROC]

I lold when he said "And the pc will have dedicated servers" with a smug look.

 

[Krynn72]

I'm betting it won't do as well as MW2, despite the marketing and supposedly better pre-order numbers. Its still going to sell a shit ton though.

 

[FrostedxB]

Tbh, the only reason to get this is the 'Nam Zombies.

 

[YROC]

Is that a confirmed mode?

 

[Deleted member 56031]

nope its not

 

[Dynasty]

Yeah but you KNOW its going in.

They would have to be retarded not to. Not necessarily a 'nam zombie mode, but a zombie mode nevertheless. If anything, that mode was the only reason World at War was worth getting.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

i agree with you but why wouldnt they just tell us by now? its actually a little worrying (well it would be if i gave a damn about black ops that is).

Plus screw nazi zombies i have L4D for a reason :|

 

[Bad^Hat]

What is this what is happening.

Can't wait to play Black Ops. It's going to be an amazing game.

I'm sorry but when ~Barnz~ has one of the least frothingly stupid posts in a games thread, you should probably start worrying.

Christ guys, what is the news here? Activision are advertising a new game and expect it to do well? F*CKING HOLY SHIT THOSE EVIL C*NTS I HOPE THEY BURN I HOPE KOTICK HAS AN ANEURYSM AND CHOKES ON HIS MONEY THE SMUG F*CK. I mean... okay. Why latch onto this article, though? What is this revelation that's evoking so much vitriol?

I'm continually puzzled by comments like this, as well:

Now seriously, with the *sigh* success that MW2 had, do they REALLY need to push this one harder?

Like any corporation in any field is just going to up and say "welp we made too much money guys, time to slow it down!" I mean... besides maybe Dethklok, heh.

Actually, the most amusing part of this? The thought that, with the heavy losses to Infinity Ward, Treyarch is probably their A studio for CoD games now. Hahahahaha.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

What is this revelation that's evoking so much vitriol?

its that this game may be a bigger seller than even MW2 was according to the article

 

[63]

its that this game may be a bigger seller than even MW2 was according to the article

But you all hate MW2, don't you want to see it dethroned?

 

[Escaep]

But you all hate MW2, don't you want to see it dethroned?

Yes we need something new to hate.

 

[Bad^Hat]

its that this game may be a bigger seller than even MW2 was according to the article

According to the game's publisher, you mean. How is this surprising in any way?

Also, it's an IGN article. So yeah.

 

[Krynn72]

THIS JUST IN: Bad^Hat REQUIRES ALL NEW ARTICLES TO INCORPORATE AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE OR ELSE IT MUST NOT BE DISCUSSED.

Wait... that's not surprising either! Shit, I can't even do hl2.net news right.

 

[Vegeta897]

Even the next Operation Flashpoint is going modern warfare.

What do you mean 'going'?
The original Operation Flashpoint was the only game that wasn't modern warfare. Dragon Rising which isn't actually part of the series has been out for a while and is modern warfare, as are ArmA and ArmA II which have been out for a while also. What's this 'going' business, what game are you referring to that hasn't already been released?

Also 63 professional troll etc.

 

[FrostedxB]

What I don't understand is, if people really hate this game/get incredibly frustrated, why are they still playing it? Got in a game today with 3 guys who claimed to absolutely hate MW2, yet they played it for hours...


Edit: Was zombie mode ever announced in World at War? I didn't hear anything about it until some friends sent me game invites.

 

[T-6000]

What I don't understand is, if people really hate this game/get incredibly frustrated, why are they still playing it? Got in a game today with 3 guys who claimed to absolutely hate MW2, yet they played it for hours...


Edit: Was zombie mode ever announced in World at War? I didn't hear anything about it until some friends sent me game invites.

About a couple of months before World at War was released, they revealed it for the first time on Gametrailers.

 

[Bad^Hat]

THIS JUST IN: Bad^Hat REQUIRES ALL NEW ARTICLES TO INCORPORATE AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE OR ELSE IT MUST NOT BE DISCUSSED.

Or, you know, anything of interest or consequence that's actually worthy of discussion.

Never mind, I'm obviously misinterpreting the meaning of "news."

What do you mean 'going'?
The original Operation Flashpoint was the only game that wasn't modern warfare. Dragon Rising which isn't actually part of the series has been out for a while and is modern warfare, as are ArmA and ArmA II which have been out for a while also. What's this 'going' business, what game are you referring to that hasn't already been released?

He meant Modern Warfare the game, not the thing. Capitalisation fail.