Modern Warfare 3 hits the $1bn mark in record time

By artappraiser on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 5:02am |

By Keith Stuart and Mark Sweney, The Guardian, Dec. 12, 2011

[....] The latest instalment of the video game series Call of Duty has become the fastest-selling entertainment product of all time, hitting $1bn in sales through retailers in just 16 days, [....]

Activision Blizzard, based in California, said yesterday that the latest in its mega-selling franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 had notched up $400m in sales within 24 hours of launching on 8 November.

"Call of Duty as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture," said Bobby Kotick, the company's CEO. "Call of Duty" is now amongst that rarified group of sustained franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and the National Football League that attract or engage tens of millions of people every year or every new release." [....]

URL:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/12/modern-warfare-3-breaks-1bn-barrier

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Better virtual wars than real ones, I suppose. If my reflexes weren't shot, I would probably try to play it just to see what all the fuss is about.

I checked out callofduty.com. Apparently, caffeine-laden Mountain Dew and Doritos are big time promoters of the games. Makes sense.

by EmmaZahn on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 5:28pm

It just boggles my mind that so many think of this as "fun". But then I don't think of the NFL as "fun" either; snf over the years, I've come to accept that I am strange that way. Thing is, most fervent NFL fans I've seen don't appear to me to be having fun, either. It's more like they are having their blood pressure raised, getting an artificial emotional storm, and then drinking beer to be able to call it "fun." The blood sugar/caffeine thing associated with gaming which you note just makes me think of the "fun" here as approaching heart attack status.

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 7:26pm

A lot of what I do isn't always fun at the time - riding up hills, swimming length after length, playing tennis against a dinker, staggering through a triathlon - but I look back with satisfaction.

by Donal on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 7:35pm

I was having big fun Sunday night watching the Cowboys until the last five minutes of the game. I have to acknowledge that your observations are pretty accurate if applied to me from that point on and for an hour or so and a few beers more after the game ended. Then I started to look forward to next week.

I have big problems with war games too and have written about them in the past. I think they are a sign and a symptom and a contributory cause, all at the same time, of a sad, sick, mind-set that will just help create more fodder for future wars.

by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 8:33pm

I do not get the spectator-sport adrenal rush either. I enjoyed playing some sports and watching [mostly the crowd}in person but never was able to identify enough with a professional team to get all that excited over a game.

OTOH, I have obsessed over more than a couple of video games enough to interfere with more important things. :-/

by EmmaZahn on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 8:39pm

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