Despite boasting that Call of Duty: Ghosts maintains the franchise's throne over the current generation of consoles and stating that $1 Billion worth of product had been shipped to retail, Activision admitted during an earnings call that the latest in the franchise failed to outsell its predecessor.
CFO Dennis Durkin said that the next-gen console transition is to blame for this slightly downward trend (I mean, a billion dollars worth of product at retail is still a massive number).
"We had shipped into retail more than $1bn of Call of Duty: Ghosts globally on day one based on an average wholesale price. As expected, due to the console transition and digital distribution, this number is down versus last year," Durkin explained.
"This year, the sell-through curve will be different than in past years due to the multiple launches of new hardware later in the month and more days between our launch and the high-volume Black Friday at the end of the month," Durking continued.
Call of Duty doesn't just face opposition from staggered console launches and digital distribution (which I'd love to hear solid numbers about), but also from Take-Two publishing, Rockstar Games, and Grand Theft Auto V, which sold $800 million worth of product through to consumers in 24 hours.
I certainly wouldn't count Call of Duty: Ghosts out anytime soon, especially considering that this is the latest in a new subseries for the franchise. Did you get Ghosts? Check out our full review for more on the latest Call of Duty game.
[Forbes]
