CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 = $1 Billion in Sales... and Quality?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made $400 million in 24 hours of release.  $775 million in five days, and now today, $1 billion.  That’s $1 Billion in two weeks. 

That’s quite the accomplishment, but the question is looking at the video game industry today as a whole.  With the success of Call of Duty, will the game industry be oversaturated with even more first person shooters?  Is it already? 

It would be easy to give the Call of Duty franchise hate, because things with a lot of popularity usually have a lot of hate tagging along.  Is the hate unwarranted?  Maybe and maybe not.  I think the Call of Duty games are fun, but why do they appeal to such a large number of people? 

Is it because of the war aspect?  Humans are attracted to violence and war.  It’s been that way since the dawn of time.  Is it because Call of Duty is fun?  Sure, that’s definitely a reason.  Is it because the franchise barely makes any updates each year?  That’s possible too… it’s like the NBA 2K or Madden Series of First Person Shooters. 

Usually when you make this argument people like to point fingers at Mario and Zelda, and complain that they’re all the same too, but do we really need to go deeper into why those games are actually different from each other as well as being similar?  If you can make this argument, I’m sure you know already… right?  Right?  Can you tell me how Modern Warfare 3 differs from Black Ops? 

Maybe that’s it… we stick with the familiar.  Why change something drastically that so many people are familiar with.  Modern Warfare 3, according to most gamers, didn’t change much from its last installment.  Reviewers on the other hand would like to make you believe that it has changed.  Then again, if you saw my my last video, who influences what you buy?  Is that a reason why the game made so much money?  Did we all buy into the hype? 

Although Battlefield 3 received similar review scores as MW3, MW3 beat it in sales by a landslide.

If you enjoy the game, the hype was right and you’re loving it, and you’ll more than likely buy the next installment of Call of Duty.  If you got bored with the game, a little earlier than you thought, maybe there’s something wrong here.  For you, the hype was wrong.  The hype from advertisements and your friends… all wrong. 

But because the game was a success; a massive success, like it’s previous installments, who else will jump on the First Person Shooter bandwagon?  Will this lead to even more first person shooter games?  Probably.  Just like in Hollywood, when something works, you’ll see more of it.  Avatar makes a billion dollars at the Box Office using 3D in 2009, and since then we’ve seen countless movies trying to take advantage of 3D.  

So, more first person shooters, anyone? 

Modern Warfare 3, a billion dollar success story?  What makes a billion dollar success? Do you know?  

-- CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 = $1 Billion in Sales... and Quality? (video script)

by Anthony J. Gomez