Computer games

[andrewducker]

I hadn't quite realised how big the Call of Duty games are. Looks like Black Ops has already taken a billion-or-so dollars. Not quite up there with the $2.7Billion that Avatar took at the cinema, but still darned impressive, particularly as the Call of Duty series is now 8 games long (total take is about $3Bn, so presumably the sales ramped up as they went along).

What I'm finding tricky is finding comparative sales figures that include PC sales. I know that Steam/Valve (for instance) don't talk about the sales figures for the games they sell, and VG Chartz will happily tell me that Black Ops has sold 9million copies on the 360, and 7million on the PS3, I don't trust their PC figures at all (it tells me that CoD: MW and MW2, for instance, sold a grand total of zero copies on PC, which I find unlikely.) I'm sure that the PC games business is smaller than the Console game business by a significant chunk, but I find it unlikely that it's so small that it cannot be detected :->

Comments

[i_kender]

They are hugely popular and great money spinners. Wait, didn't I read somewhere that both Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops each made more money than Avatar or Titanic? *checks*... ah, my mistake... it was their opening day sales that smashed the record of money made compared to both those films, still pretty impressive. No word on first weekend takings or the equivalent, not that I could find anyway.

The real question is, have you played them?

[andrewducker]

I've played the first MW, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought that the damage system was perfect for that kind of game, I loved the respawning bad guys forcing you forward, and thought that the overall plot was fantastically over the top. It was incredibly intense. I wouldn't want to play that kind of game constantly, but it's something I enjoyed.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

What is the return on investment and who gets the money - is there an equivalent of Hollywood accounting for the games industry?

How do the all-time receipts for, say, Pac Man and ET compare? Or is it only more recently that games have become Hollywood-like, as assembly-line mega $ products?

[broin.livejournal.com]

BUT VEIDEOGAMES ARE FOR LOSARS

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I am so glad that the losers won :->

[andrewducker]

The games industry is, in many ways, a lot better than Hollywood.

It still has issues, but both the producers and the distributors tend to be be capable of hiring lawyers, and so things tend to be a tad more honest.