While the Call of Duty franchise may be some way off its peak numbers with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 it's still a massive force at retail. Activision just sent out a press release stating Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the "the biggest entertainment launch of the year, besting not only all other video games, but also the biggest movies, music and books launched in 2014". A couple of other interesting notes include the fact that Activision as well as Xbox Live and PSN numbers indicate that this is the biggest ever digital console launch of a game. Life-to-date the franchise has sold games in excess of $10 billion worldwide.
Clearly it is something to celebrate and with the news came not one but two quotes from high-profile Activision executives:
"Since Activision created the Call of Duty franchise in 2003, franchise revenues have exceeded $10 billion in sales worldwide, far exceeding box office receipts for such household movie franchises as Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man and Avengers, combined," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Advanced Warfare is the biggest entertainment launch of 2014 in terms of revenue, surpassing all movie, music and book launches this year."
"We poured our hearts into making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare an epic ride and we are pleased with the performance," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous. We believe Advanced Warfare will be the most successful game of the year and we thank our fans for making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year."