Games property is in the same league as Titanic and Thriller, says analyst Colin Sebastian
Not yet sick of Modern Warfare 2 sales numbers? Good, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has more.
He reckons that the Call of Duty franchise will in 2009 break the $1bn worldwide sales revenue, putting it in the same league as other Activision Blizzard properties World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero - and other big entertainment properties like Michael Jackson's Thriller album and James Cameron's Titanic movie.
"The launch of Modern Warfare 2 will quickly claim a spot among the top 10 entertainment properties of all time — generating over $1 billion in retail sales worldwide over the first several months post release, in the same category with Titanic and Thriller, while generating higher margins and return on capital," he has said in his latest note to investors.
He adds that MW2 is in fact selling against his estimates for the game, and will have sold close to 9m by the end of the launch week - double the already-impressive day one sales of 4.7m in North America and the UK.
The game will have sold 12.5m copies by the end of the calendar year, Sebastian now says.

The analyst also says the arrival of Modern Warfare 2 reinforces that Activision's big $1bn dollar franchises can fight against market uncertainty
He said: "We believe recent concerns over music game sales, weakness on Nintendo platforms, the WoW transition in China and insider share sales were somewhat magnified during a period of limited product momentum, but may appear less relevant moving into 2010."
He added: "World of Warcraft and Call of Duty are billion-dollar properties now in their prime, one with an enviable online subscription model, and the other taking the helm as the most popular cross-platform console game.
"Interestingly, consumers continue to show a willingness to pay for interactive entertainment through both the retail and Internet channels, while traditional forms of media continue to struggle transitioning to new distribution models."
Sebastian has placed a 'buy' recommendation on Activision stock for those looking to invest.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/36491/Call...-1bn-franchise ...

Activision has revealed that Modern Warfare 2 made USD 310 million on its first day on sale - in the US and UK markets alone.

That's according to internal estimates at the publisher, and if accurate would make it the biggest entertainment launch of all time - eclipsing the last blockbuster videogame to claim that honour - Grand Theft Auto IV, released last year.

The company added that it believed 4.7 million units were sold in the two countries as thousands of stores there opened at midnight, while in the UK a number of supermarket stores sold out as frenzied discounting reduced the price point from GBP 44.99 to nearer GBP 25.

The Infinity Ward-developed title had been predicted to be the year's biggest seller, although just prior to launch there was some controversy about a terrorist scene in the game, picked up by mainstream press, while some retailers broke street dates as demand hit fever pitch.

"The Call of Duty franchise has become a cultural phenomenon showing the power of video games as an entertainment medium," said Mike Griffith, CEO of Activision Publishing. "The shattering of these entertainment records is a testament to the compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging experience that the Call of Duty brand delivers.

"Modern Warfare 2 has taken interactive experience to unprecedented heights setting a new standard for entertainment," he added.

But despite the runaway success of the game, investors seem to be unimpressed, as the company's share price has fallen by 3.8 per cent since Tuesday to USD 11.38.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-in-us-and-uk ...

Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch has told GamesIndustry.biz that UK retailers "have been at the forefront of data capture for decades," and that he's confident that yesterday's 1.23 million Modern Warfare 2 sales numbers are accurate.

He was responding to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who cast doubts that the numbers were correct, suggesting Chart-Track had counted pre-orders before they had passed from retailer to consumer.

"UK retailers have been at the forefront of electronic data capture for decades, which in turn allows us to capture daily sales from 99 per cent of retailers on our panel," said Bloch. "That's over 6000 retail outlets plus all the etailers - currently 25 different store fronts."

Bloch detailed that pre-orders are only counted as they physically change hands on the High Street, or in the case of online sales – as they are shipped from warehouse to consumer.

"Every retailer on our panel supplies Electronic Point of Sale data. In the specific case of pre-orders through retailers with High Street stores, we can and do pick these up sometimes months before a product actually launches and these are set up by the retailer to report as a specific retailer code. When the product goes live we begin to track sales on the actual barcode for that product, along with the actual selling price for every single transaction."

"In the specific case of online retailers and pre-orders, the moment they ship a product it registers as a sale in the daily transaction files we are sent. Online retailers have to ship the product in advance in order to hit the street date, so we will pick up actual sales (shipped to the customer) prior to the day one release. These are re-dated to day one."

Bloch added that he expects Chart-Track will update the day one figures next week, at the same time ELSPA publishes full-week sales for the game.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-sales-numbers ...

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is doubtful that Chart-Track's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sales figures are correct, and that the game did not sell 1.23 million units on its first day.

He was speaking following estimates that the game sold seven million units worldwide on day one – a number arrived at by Broadpoint AMTech analyst Ben Schachter, who used the Chart-Track figures to extrapolate global sales numbers.

"Seven million is therefore a very reasonable estimate, if we accept that the UK figure is accurate. My guess is that it’s not," Pachter told VG247.

"I don’t know how anyone could aggregate UK sales that fast. I’d say it’s far more likely that the game sold no more than 5 million on day one (my bias is 4 million), and that it won’t hit 7 million until the end of the weekend," he said.

"However, you can’t argue with 'facts' such as Chart-Track reports of first day sales. I have a feeling that the figure includes all pre-orders, but not necessarily those units actually picked up on day one."

GfK Chart-Track and ELSPA announced the UK sales figures yesterday, stating that the game grossed around GBP 47 million on its first day on sale, beating the previous day-one record holder GTAIV, which sold an estimated 631,000 units and grossed GBP 27.2 million.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-2-sales-data ...

Sony's next firmware update could integrate Facebook into the PlayStation 3 interface, according to leaking images.

As reported by website Scrawl, images showing the Facebook icon as part of the PS3 cross media bar were posted on PlayStation.com, but subsequently removed.

The screenshots also showed a new photo browsing interface and a function for users to change the appearance of their PSN profile images.

Microsoft has already announced Facebook integration for the Xbox 360, and the function is expected to launch on the console later this year.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...grate-facebook ...

The volume of users playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 via the PlayStation Network has caused game crippling problems for Sony and Activision.

The problem was with the PlayStation Network itself, according to Infinity Ward's Rob Bowling, who kept users up to date with the issue via Twitter last night.

"It's a server overload not a bug in the code," wrote Bowling. "They're working to have servers back up ASAP. MP servers gradually coming back online. Some users may still experience issues," he added.

"Looks like it was the amount of connections at once that killed PSN."

Users were let back on to the service gradually, as the temporary solution was found to get players back in the highly-popular game.

"They're enabling 20,000 users at a time to connect now. I believe this is Sony/DemonWare's temporary solution while they work on fortifying the infrastructure," he said.

At the time of writing, Bowling's last update on the problem said that "PSN multiplayer should be running at full capacity. We expect smooth skies ahead."

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Sony has said that its motion control technology is enabling first-party development to create great moments to its existing PlayStation franchises.

That Sony is working hard to incorporate motion control into fan-favourites should please the core gaming audience, and help calm fears that the motion technology is dumbing down home console gaming to pander to a casual audience.

Speaking in an interview published today, Michael Denny, senior VP of Worldwide Studios told GamesIndustry.biz that the company's approach to motion control is two-fold – to work the technology into popular PlayStation franchises, and create new IP designed specifically for the tech from scratch.

"We are looking at original titles that can really showcase the technology, but we also want existing franchises to support motion control where it can really enhance the experience that we're trying to build," detailed Denny.

"With the existing franchises and more core games, it's a way of enhancing those experiences. It's fair to say we have had or we are experiencing some real great moments looking at our existing franchises and putting in that support."

Internal development studios – which include Motorstorm team Evolution, Killzone-creators Guerilla and SingStar house Sony London – are treating the technology as a new platform, said Denny, and are embracing fresh control methods.

"The motion control system we're putting in place going forward is being treating as more of a platform. Here in Europe we have a lot of experience helping develop the peripherals for our social games but we see the motion control solution and experience as being broader than that. We do believe it can come into a core experience as well."

"It was certainly an exciting challenge for the guys and one that the teams have embraced. The key for them is that they want to implement it in a way which is additive to the experiences they could otherwise give with the DualShock," said Denny.

Sony motion control technology was first shown at E3 earlier this year, with a range of tech demo's highlighting simple mini-games and interactions using the motion peripheral as a sword, whip, bow and arrow.

The company originally announced a Spring launch window for the motion control tech, but a leaked document from Sega narrowed the release down to March 2010.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ps3-franchises ...

Just seconds ago i turned on MSN and one of my contacts Yoshihiro has got in his comments that Kernal Access for PSPgo is a goer which means Homebrew for the PSPgo is very much a reality as soon as the release occurs, firstly heres a youtube video proof of concept:



Heres some extra info courtesy of the french site PSPgen and italian site PSPita.

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Source: Akihabara News

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