Nollenberger Capital Partners analyst Todd Greenwald is predicting big things for Activision’s new Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, going as far as to suggest that it may outsell Halo 3.
Commenting on the game’s immense popularity, Greenwald said, “Call of Duty 4, which was released two days ago by Activision, appears to be in extremely high demand and is sold out across the board. We’ve checked with a wide range of retailers (Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target) and only pre-orders are being satisfied – stores are otherwise sold out of the title.”
“Thus far, the game has an average score of 9.5/10 on Metacritic.com, which is almost unprecedented and puts it on par with Halo 3,” he continued. “It certainly is the highest-rated game Activision has ever created. Keep in mind, CoD4 is launching on four times as many platforms (Xbox 360, PlayStation3, PC, DS) as Halo 3 (360 only). Halo 3 has so far sold about 4 million units. A year ago, Call of Duty 3 sold about 3 million units, and we anticipate this year’s version could do four million or more.”
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the latest entry in Activision’s long-running Call of Duty franchise, and the first not to be set in World War II. Players take on the role of soldiers in both the British Special Air Service and the United States Marine Corps, as well as “cameo-style” individual missions that cast gamers as other soldiers in different situations. Modern Warfare is also the first Call of Duty release to be rated M (Mature) by the ESRB.
