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Modern Warfare has largest launch in entertainment history

The blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 has crushed all previous entertainment sales records, with a five-day $550 million USD launch, making it the biggest in history.

The game beat out all previous five-day records for the entertainment industry, including videogames, movies and books.



MW2 surpassed Grand Theft Auto IV, which had sales totaling $500 million. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince grossed $394 million in its five-day launch, making it the best movie launch of all time.

"In just five days of sell through, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon," added Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. "The title's success redefines entertainment as million of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Nov 2009 13:15

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• 23 comments

• bdoggie08

  This game is amazing. Graphics are ok, but watered down because of the 360's hardware. Too bad tho, PSN networks just as good, and is free. My buddies say the controls are better for the Playstation 3 remote, but I don't care either way, they both feel the same to me. Great job Infinity Ward, for making a great game with massive maps! The Favela is the hardest map! So many cheap campers in that map!

  18.11.2009 13:56 #1

• Cubz

  The game looks like a rehash.

  18.11.2009 14:07 #2

• emugamer

  lol, I guess MW2 is the reason why the number of people on Uncharted 2 multiplayer dropped by a factor of 2 :P

  18.11.2009 14:33 #3

• Buga

  It just shows that piracy isn't killing entertainment. What they put out does, since most stuff sucks anymore.

  18.11.2009 15:28 #4

• emugamer

  I wonder if Activision can get sued for stealing customers from the competition...

  18.11.2009 15:32 #5

• milkyoreo

  Nobody is surprised here.

  18.11.2009 18:08 #6

• bam431

  Originally posted by milkyoreo: Nobody is surprised here.
  Nope this is pretty much exactly what I thought would happen.

  18.11.2009 21:37 #7

• wyldkard

  Makes you wonder if it would have toppled GTA4 if it was the same price. Remember they hiked the price of the game

  19.11.2009 02:42 #8

• nintenut

  I have no idea how or why this happened... MW2 is a superbly mediocre title.
  
  I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not, but it's also not a great game... The campaign is fun, the story us entertaining, but it's ridiculously short, the characters never really have enough time for you to get attached to them. The multiplayer is absolutely nothing to write home about, unless we're talking about the PC version, in which case it is, but only because of the boneheaded decisions IW made regarding it.

  19.11.2009 03:08 #9

• ZippyDSM

  And sucks as bad as good as it sales.....

  19.11.2009 13:03 #10

• B33rdrnkr

  Sick game too...

  19.11.2009 15:07 #11

• onondaga

  you raise the price of something of course it's gonna have record sales. just like every year movies have record sales. not taking away from mw2 just saying.

  20.11.2009 16:48 #12

• bam431

  Originally posted by nintenut: I have no idea how or why this happened... MW2 is a superbly mediocre title.
  
  I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not, but it's also not a great game... The campaign is fun, the story us entertaining, but it's ridiculously short, the characters never really have enough time for you to get attached to them. The multiplayer is absolutely nothing to write home about, unless we're talking about the PC version, in which case it is, but only because of the boneheaded decisions IW made regarding it.
  Well, Thats your opinion I enjoyed the story (although short) and I've been playing the multiplayer non-stop since the 11th. Spec ops mode is fun if you have some friends to play with too.

  20.11.2009 21:11 #13

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by nintenut: I have no idea how or why this happened... MW2 is a superbly mediocre title.
  
  I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not, but it's also not a great game... The campaign is fun, the story us entertaining, but it's ridiculously short, the characters never really have enough time for you to get attached to them. The multiplayer is absolutely nothing to write home about, unless we're talking about the PC version, in which case it is, but only because of the boneheaded decisions IW made regarding it.Its the same with the film industry, people buy crap buy the ton and throw it away.....

  20.11.2009 21:38 #14

• nintenut

  Quote:Originally posted by nintenut: I have no idea how or why this happened... MW2 is a superbly mediocre title.
  
  I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not, but it's also not a great game... The campaign is fun, the story us entertaining, but it's ridiculously short, the characters never really have enough time for you to get attached to them. The multiplayer is absolutely nothing to write home about, unless we're talking about the PC version, in which case it is, but only because of the boneheaded decisions IW made regarding it.
  Well, Thats your opinion I enjoyed the story (although short) and I've been playing the multiplayer non-stop since the 11th. Spec ops mode is fun if you have some friends to play with too.
  I didn't say that it wasn't fun, I said it wasn't deserving of the Biggest Launch in Entertainment History.

  21.11.2009 05:18 #15

• MonoSoft

  I think you two are getting trying to resist the flow or something.... the game is obviously amazing, these sales do not lie. They'll always be people who oppose the highest I suppose. Just for the sake of being different.

  25.11.2009 15:55 #16

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by MonoSoft: I think you two are getting trying to resist the flow or something.... the game is obviously amazing, these sales do not lie. They'll always be people who oppose the highest I suppose. Just for the sake of being different.Ha5rdly it just means there's alot of stupid people in the world...look at how well twilight is doing mmmm kay.....

  25.11.2009 18:23 #17

• MonoSoft

  that's not stupidity, that's just a silly teenage girl thing. it'll pass. COD4 never died, hence the popularity towards this game. And i can't believe you'd compare COD:MW2 to Twilight.
  

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  26.11.2009 18:04 #18

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by MonoSoft: that's not stupidity, that's just a silly teenage girl thing. it'll pass. COD4 never died, hence the popularity towards this game. And i can't believe you'd compare COD:MW2 to Twilight.
  Undeserving and overrated is still undeserving and overrated even if its a boy thing......

  26.11.2009 19:57 #19

• Hummer81

  Kudos to MW2 took a strong offering in MW and just re skinned it and made the maps as big as we all wanted! The New Custom Kill Streaks are a nice touch, but as usual there are those who will moan. I play on PS3 and I enjoy it, still would be better with mouse and keyboard controls, the only reason I swapped from PC was to keep costs of hardware down

  27.11.2009 05:10 #20

• wyldkard

  Are these straight through to cosumer sales or just what retailers ordered to sell? I'd love to know how they'd arrive at consumer sales as not every store would relay figures back to a 'central point' in order to stroke a publisher's ego

  27.11.2009 18:51 #21

• nintenut

  Originally posted by MonoSoft: that's not stupidity, that's just a silly teenage girl thing. it'll pass.
  There are Twilight fans in their forties, dude... They have the moms, too!

  30.11.2009 23:04 #22

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by MonoSoft: that's not stupidity, that's just a silly teenage girl thing. it'll pass.
  There are Twilight fans in their forties, dude... They have the moms, too!I can't find the pic but what was it about 40 year old people drooling over teenagers...if it was guys to girls they'd call the cops :P

  30.11.2009 23:15 #23