Call of Duty is Now a $10 Billion Franchise

<p>The Call of Duty is being answered by more gamers than ever&comma; Activision reports&period; The series publisher&&num;8217&semi;s projected that the globe&&num;8217&semi;s most popular military first-person-shooter series has now become a &dollar;10 billion franchise worldwide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The news comes nearly three weeks after the release of Sledgehammer Games&&num;8217&semi;s<em> Call of Duty&colon; Advanced Warfare<&sol;em>&comma; though no specific sales figures for copies sold were offered for the title thus far&period; What Activision does say is that this year’s release is the by far the largest for any entertainment product in 2014 in cold hard cash&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Advanced Warfare<&sol;em> now must live up to the record-breaking milestone set by 2012&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Call of Duty&colon; Black Ops II&period; <&sol;em>The sequel to 2010&&num;8217&semi;s<em> Black Ops<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Black Ops II<&sol;em> earned <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;telegraph&period;co&period;uk&sol;technology&sol;news&sol;9683341&sol;Call-of-duty-Black-Ops-II-sales-hit-500-million-in-first-24-hours&period;html">&dollar;500 million in the U&period;S&period; alone<&sol;a> in its first day and sold over 7&period;5 million copies – the biggest launch day for a game on record until the release of Rockstar&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Grand Theft Auto V<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Comparably&comma; the open-world action title sold 11&period;2 million copies and made off with <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;variety&period;com&sol;2013&sol;digital&sol;news&sol;grand-theft-auto-v-earns-800-million-in-a-day-more-than-worldwide-haul-of-man-of-steel-1200616706&sol;">&dollar;800 million day one<&sol;a>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s sold over 34 million copies to date since its release in late September of 2013 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 alone&period; The game recently released for Windows PC&comma; Xbox One&comma; and Playstation 4 with an all-new first person mode&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;grand-theft-auto-v-ps3-ps4-comparison-first-person-experience-videos&sol;">updated graphics<&sol;a>&comma; as well <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wouldnt-gta-5-awesome-share-play&sol;">rumored &&num;8220&semi;Share Play&&num;8221&semi; support<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prior to the release of 2013&&num;8217&semi;s<em> Call of Duty&colon; Ghosts<&sol;em>&comma; the series has been on a financial upswing with <em>Black Ops II<&sol;em>&period; <em>Call of Duty&colon; Modern Warfare 3<&sol;em> made &dollar;400 million day one&semi; <em>Call of Duty&colon; Black Ops <&sol;em>&dollar;360 million&semi; and <em>Modern Warfare 2 <&sol;em>&dollar;310 million&period; <em>Black Ops II<&sol;em> grossed over a billion in 15 days – one day less than <em>Modern Warfare 3<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For now&comma; <em>Advanced Warfare<&sol;em> is reportedly performing better than <em>Ghosts <&sol;em>despite the lack of firm statistics&period; It is also the biggest revenue earner for digital titles in console history&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Analysts have since speculated as to the decline of the franchise monetarily and critically&period; Either remain to be seen as new studio Sledgehammer Games&&num;8217&semi;s work with <em>Advanced Warfare<&sol;em> mark Activision&&num;8217&semi;s new intention of releasing all future series entries over a three-year development cycle&comma; according to reports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Via<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;joystiq&period;com&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;20&sol;call-of-duty-franchise-tops-10-billion-in-sales-advanced-warfa&sol;">Joystiq<&sol;a> &amp&semi; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;computerandvideogames&period;com&sol;448586&sol;call-of-duty-series-switches-to-three-year-development-cycle&sol;">CVG<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;