Thought that criticisms, controversies about resolution and just plain exhaustion with the same old elements of Call of Duty would dull the financial impact of Call of Duty: Ghosts? Think again! Activision has just announced that Call of Duty Ghosts has sold more than $1 billion at retail on day one of its launch and occupies the top spot on Xbox Live with millions of people online in multiplayer.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated that, “Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation. More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’s launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular.”
CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg added that, “Ghosts is an amazing game which ushers in the next generation of Call of Duty. The team at Infinity Ward has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet.
“This is the must have launch title for the next generation of consoles, and we expect Call of Duty: Ghosts to be the most successful launch title for the Xbox One and PS4 by a wide margin. In fact, according to GameStop, Call of Duty: Ghosts is their most pre-reserved next gen title.”
As a sign of good news, it seems the Xbox 360 sessions with Ghosts are lasting longer than either Black Ops II or Modern Warfare 3 around the same time period. Call of Duty: Ghosts is still due to launch on PlayStation 4 on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe, while an Xbox One release is scheduled for November 22nd.