Activision Blizzard's (ATVI) New "Call of Duty" Has Gamers Buzzing, But Stock Flat

November 10, 2009 12:52 PM EST

The gaming industry, specifically publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. (Nasdag: ATVI), got a boost today with the release of the highly-anticipated game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" to millions of eager fans.

The sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year hit is expected to be one of the biggest and fastest selling games of all time, set to rival the records set by the "Grand Theft Auto" series. The original game has sold over 13 million copies since its release.

The new first-person-shooter game could not come at a better time, as the video game industry has been hit hard by tough economic times, with sales of video games down in the U.S by 13 percent this year according to a report from Reuters.

The game is not expected to have the impact internationally that the GTA series did due to the first-person-shooter genre being popular in fewer regions. However the United States and the United Kingdom are expected to welcome the game with open arms.

"By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time. As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6,200 store network," said Tony Bartel, Executive VP of merchandising and marketing with GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME).

Activision Blizzard, who also publishes the popular Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft series, teamed up with more than 10,000 GameStop and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) stores for a midnight release of the game.

The game comes out ahead of other industry charging titles next week, including Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed II," and Valve's "Left 4 Dead 2."

All three of these potential holiday hits have been rated Mature for violence and blood. Also Nintendo's Wii will not support any of the titles, surely helping to push sales of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox and Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3.

The release of Activision's new sure-thing comes the day after Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) reported losses for its second quarter. EA plans to continue to restructure its business, including cutting 1,500 jobs by the end of March 2010. Shares of EA have decline 6.8 percent following the news.

Activision Blizzard has not seen an immediate positive impact from the big release as its shares are down 0.50 percent to $11.49 in midday market trading. Sony is down 1.36 percent to $29.09. Microsoft is slightly down 0.21 percent to $28.93.

Related Categories

Corporate News
Insiders' Blog

Stocks Mentioned

Add Your Comment

Name

Subject

Body

Verification can't see the text?
click here to refresh the image.
what's this?