The numbers are in, and it looks like Call of Duty: Black Ops is officially the biggest entertainment launch of all time, trumping Avatar, any of the Halo releases, and anything else anywhere ever in all of mankind’s history.
The game sold about 5.6 million copies banking approximately $360 million dollars, compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which made about $310 million last year.
The massive success of Call of Duty: Black Ops has proven at least one very important thing to Activision. Infinity Ward, the creators of the Call of Duty series and generally considered the A team of Call of Duty development (they made Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warare, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) is not ultimately important to the success of the Call of Duty series. Treyarch, generally considered the B team of Call of Duty development (they made Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: Word at War) has more than proven themselves with this release.
Now that Activision has more money than they know what to do with, they can take that huge surplus and invest it in all kinds of new and innovative franchises and IP’s! A gamer can dream, right?
[Kotaku]
