Activision's very happy with the millions of dollars it's just made from Modern Warfare 2, but don't ask them about the game on PC...
So it seems Modern Warfare 2 is bigger than God. Bigger, perhaps, even than The Beatles.
Activision has proudly announced the game has delivered a whopping $550 million worldwide in its first five days of launch. That's not just a record in gaming - it pretty much pwns Hollywood epics like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which earned a mere $394 million. Peanuts! In gaming terms, the nearest rival is the crime epic Grand Theft Auto IV, with a still impressive $500 million under its belt in that five-day launch window.
It's something worth being proud of. But it's not something that should make a PC player all that happy. Here's why.
Activision has, understandably, been very cagey about the PC version of the game, since developer Infinity Ward started dropping bombshells about the state of the PC port. Lack of dedicated server support, player restrictions, and outrageous claims of what the PC version's actual 'features' were all left Modern Warfare 2's publisher a little gun-shy.
This came to a head in the US, where Activision - according to a review at Ars Technica - refused to send out review code, instead inviting journalists to a review day. And, of course, there was only console code available to play. The lads at Ars had to go out and buy a PC copy, and of course, were not impressed.
It was a similar tale here, though whether by fault or design is hard to tell. Atomic was first sent PS3 code; we had to request the PC version but we were told it wasn't yet available locally. Really? What am I seeing on EB shelves? Nonetheless, a week later - yesterday - we got the code. Then we got Activision's release with the stunning sales numbers. And, of course, we asked about specific PC sales figures.
Now, before we pass on the response, understand that Activision's very happy with the 5.2 million multiplayer hours logged on Xbox LIVE, and the 2.2 million unique gamers on the same service. Any publisher should be proud of those numbers. But here's what we were told about PC sales.
"We don't have a breakdown of platform or region."
Which, you know, I find very hard to believe, especially as the mainstream press is reporting that "In its first 24 hours on sale, Call of Duty made $US310 million ($333.23 million) in North America and the United Kingdom alone". Is the SMH making that up, or are the PC gaming press getting a different spin?
But that's indicative of what most gamers already believe to be true - Activision simply doesn't give a fig for PC gamers when it comes to this title. We are, in effect, an out of touch minority with no financial pull, and that's the only way these things are measured now.
And what do we think of the game so far? We'll be publishing a full review in issue 108 of course, but for now... well, look at it this way. I don't think anyone should think of uninstalling the original CoD4 any time soon.
UPDATE: Remember how Infinity Ward said the lack of dedicated servers was all about protecting casual gamers from those nasty hackers? That lasted all of a matter of days.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012