Black Ops grosses $650M in five days, first updates live

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 18th 2010 9:45AM

Activision claimed this morning that Call of Duty: Black Ops took in $650 million in five days, surpassing the company's previous record-setting, $550 million launch week with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. According to CEO Bobby Kotick, "Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment."

Beyond the fiscal fidelity provided to Activision, Call of Duty has helped Microsoft to trumpet new records for Xbox Live. The service reportedly broke a record of 2.6 million unique players in-game on the November 9 launch day, with 5.9 million multiplayer hours logged that same day.

Updates are available now for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. For all the declassified patch intel, check out the Black Ops forums.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Source: Activision, Twitter - Olin

Tags: Activision, Activision-Blizzard, Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops, fps, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, Treyarch, xbox, xbox-live

Reader Comments (84)

Well that's horribly disappointing :(

@Helghast102

What you obviously meant to say:
"MORE JPRGs!!!!!!!! They're so original!!!! VC FOREVER! Want Tales game! They'll make money!!!"

@Helghast102

Noob games will always get that kind of attention...its easy!

@Streeks1984 I know! Look how much attention MW2 got! Thank goodness Black Ops is getting attention for being a good game. *whew*.

@ichibansony

Yes 'gameplay'

And Kotick will be laughing his ass off as he is sitting in his pool made of solid gold.

I wonder how many of those who bought this said "I'll never buy another COD game again!' after the IW fiasco.

@Zepinephrine

I said that, and guess what? I didnt buy or rent CoD.

:D

@Zepinephrine After the trickery they pulled on me in MW2 i will not buy another Madden whoops meant to say COD! Oh im one of the people who actually does what he says so yea haven't bought it check my gamertag ThaAceman.

@Zepinephrine

Probably none of them since less than 1% of those people who buy CoD actually follow sites like Joystiq.

I didn't buy MW2 either, so why would I buy this? I was so burned out on CoD4 and W@W, I have no interest in playing the series ever again. Not buying Activision games just made the decision to not buy this or MW2 even easier

@Zepinephrine Me. Unlike most of people who pretend not to like MW2 (guessing that's what's "coo;" these days), I in fact, love that game. After the whole IW fiasco, I told myself I was never going to buy another CoD game ever again, but that didn't stop me from trying it. But I can now say that game was a major disappointment.
Son, I am disappoint.

@Zepinephrine

Yep, just all the Map Pack boycotters. Funny how they sold millions despite the cries about the new price point.

@Zepinephrine; wow, I'm glad to see there's other people here who haven't bought the game. I'm not as alone in the world as I think!

why are videogames so expensive if they are cheaper to make than a movie and have bigger earnings?

@Theguyoverthere economics.

@Theguyoverthere

Games are not expensive.

Infact, if you account for inflation, there cheaper today then they were ;)

@Theguyoverthere

Because we pay for it.

@Theguyoverthere
reasons

@Faenix
Agreed. I remember paying $79.99 for Revenge of Shinobi on Sega Genesis when it came out. Man I had to save for a long time to get that money.

Games today cost a heck of a lot more to make now too. sometimes years and years of development!

@Theguyoverthere
They might have bigger earnings BECAUSE they are expensive.

So I wonder how long before we see the first single week, billion dollar game?

@KupoCheer

GT5 comes out Nov 24th :)

@lakkus GT does stand to make that much or more. but it isn't going to do it in it's first week. I'd love to be proven wrong tho.

@lakkus As much as i'd love it to be GT5 that does it (man does GT5 look awesome), there is no way a single platform game can compete with COD which is out for 4 platforms in terms of total sales.

@KupoCheer
Warcraft 2

Hey, Dirty, baby I got your money.

@jynxycat

Don'tcha worryyy...

I'm sure tons of people are going to hate on this post, but I love Treyarch's work. Enjoyed World @ War immensely; love Black Ops. I typically only game 5-10 hrs per week nowadays, but Black Ops makes me want to play every night. Activision may be an Empire of Evil, but to me the quality of their developers' product is outstanding. Now if they can only fix some of the matchmaking issues...

@xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82 I concur with all that, and my main gripe in MP is the spawning. Try spawning on the 'Nuketown' level while the enemy has a chopper gunner out and not get mowed down 15x in a row while spawning.

@xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82

No hate from me, though I'm sure many will disagree. It's cool to hate on Activision/Kotick and say that they milk the franchise, but guess what? The COD series is always a polished, top-notch, fun time. As long as the games are of this standard (or better) each year, then release it each year. It obviously makes them an insane amount of money so why wouldn't they? It's a business, people. Money is everything. If the games are not well made, then you will see the sales dip, but they are consistently of great quality and that's a big reason as to why they sell well each and every time.

@xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82

I just get super pissed at Treyarch games cause the hit detection is always garbage...makes me throw controllers at walls.

You all disappoint me...

@Coldplay619

There are a few that still think above the norm...have faith.

I swear Bobby Kotick craps $100 bills.

@Nytro

Which is weird because he swallows $20 bills.

@DangerMouse001

He also swallows little children too. Every time a kid bought the Mw2 map backs another child went missing.

@Nytro

If that were true, he could take a big, green dump on my chest and I'd be okay with it.

@Uncle Jesse Standards man! Standards...

Uncle Jesse, I...

@xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82

...love you?

COD: Blops

Look I get it everyone hates this guy, but you have to look at it from a business standpoint. What is he supposed to do, run the business into the ground? I'm not a fan of him but I don't hate him. His job is to maximize profits and to retain earnings. What is Activision supposed to do, stop wanting money? There will always be two sides to this argument and people will either love them or hate them. Truth is I do not want to be paying monthly to play this game, but if it comes to it I'll give them my money.

@SackDanDruff

Take a break. Give the genre time to actually innovate. Or come up with other new IP's...

Easier said than done though when one's not working in the industry. Like any other line of work, it's a tough one.

Another week, another smash hit "hardcore" game on the PS3 and 360. Yet they still think they need all that motion control crap?

@benheck
The motion control is not meant to appeal to the "hardcore" gamer in you.
They are going for a different crowd with motion control.
And while motion controlled gamed may never be as big sellers as 'teh hardcorez' they still bring in money, and right now no sensible company is going to ignore a new opportunity to make money.

Bought it, play it, love it.

Forget the politics and just play the games. The politics of gaming does not include us. You can bitch and moan about Activision but it clearly does nothing (judging by the sales numbers) except up your blood pressure and cause health problems.

So just enjoy the games you want to enjoy. If you don't like Call of Duty because the game doesn't appeal to you for gaming-reasons then that's cool. But if you hate a game because of politics then you are just missing out.

I'm not trying to defend anything here, just trying to let you know that your hate really affects nothing but yourselves.

/reformed "hater"

@xreadmore Listen to this man. It's unfortunate, but he is right. The vast majority of people who play games like this just don't know about the oldies, I think (keyword THINK. I've played CoD online, and I'd say 94% of the people I hear are kids or meatheads). They've never experienced games like Deus Ex, Psychonauts, the original Banjo games, etc. They're just too young, or those games are not dudebro enough.

I don't blame them, they're victims of huge marketing. It's just saddening to see my favorite hobby get raped by big business.

@xreadmore
Check out Starcraft 2 reviews on Amazon for a hilarious example of gamers making a stand against . . . umm, good games.

There's pages upon pages of people whining about Blizzard's Battle Net policies, lack of LAN support and their decision to release Zerg and Protoss campaigns as separate expansions. As a result, the game has something like a 2/5 star rating instead of a 5/5 it clearly deserves.

I just look at them and smile. You go ahead and stand up for what you think is right while I enjoy the best RTS game of the decade.

Same story here, I didn't like Blops but not because of any silly political reasons but because the single player campaign sucked penis. IMHO, of course.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops

Black Ops grosses $650M in five days, first updates live

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Reader Comments (84)

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:49AM Helghast102 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:26PM thisredengine said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:30PM Streeks1984 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 1:17PM Brian Griffin said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:55PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:51AM Talos Izanagi said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:54AM Zepinephrine said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:00AM Faenix said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:02AM GTThaAceman said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:14AM BoBsS said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:27AM Epoque said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:46AM 182 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:11AM Wickerman22 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:52AM Mouthsmasher said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:54AM Theguyoverthere said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:56AM jynxycat said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:01AM Faenix said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:02AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:19AM Zepinephrine said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:51AM xreadmore said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 3:25PM DBuckEye said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:55AM KupoCheer said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:10PM lakkus said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:22PM mmmfishtacos said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 2:57PM phinn said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:23PM xreadmore said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:56AM jynxycat said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:02AM xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:02AM xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:12AM sirspy said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:15AM sirspy said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:17AM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:17AM xHaldirx said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:03AM Coldplay619 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:56PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:05AM Nytro said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:15AM DangerMouse001 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:18AM Nytro said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:19AM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:01AM EvoHelix said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:42PM xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 12:46PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:27AM Barkley610 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:35AM SackDanDruff said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:44AM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:38AM benheck said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:51AM Istari Spartan said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 10:43AM xreadmore said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:07AM Daruna said

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 11:26AM blueskyv201 said

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