Will Call of Duty: Black Ops Give the Competition a Black Eye?

By now, you've heard the monumental sales predictions. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter recently said that, in addition to becoming the best-selling game of the year, he expects Activision Blizzard, Inc.'s ATVI Call of Duty: Black Ops to sell 15 million units. His prediction might be a bit high, but it's also a no-brainer. The Call of Duty series has consistently sold several million copies year after year. In January, the LA Times reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 had garnered more than $1 billion in sales since its November 2009 release. While this is great news for Activision, it seems to be having a negative impact on the rest of the industry. This year more than ever, game companies have delayed their biggest fall releases till 2011. These releases include Sony Corporation's SNE LittleBigPlanet 2, Atari's Test Drive Unlimited 2, and Electronic Arts Inc.'s ERTS Crysis 2. While game companies often cite product quality issues as a reason for their delays, it is clear that if Call of Duty continues to dominate the sales charts, publishers will become increasingly wary of releasing games whenever a new CoD arrives.