Activision says console transition behind lower Call of Duty sales

Call of Duty: Ghosts sales are down compared to Black Ops II, Activision has admitted.

Speaking to investors last night, CFO Dennis Durkin confirmed what we all suspected following Activision’s decision yesterday to release sell-in numbers for the game as opposed to actual sales.

And with MCV confirming this morning that Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has so far sold 60 per cent fewer units than ACIII and Battlefield 4 69 per cent down fewer, the Ghosts confirmation is hardly surprising.

As we have said for more than a year now, console transition years are volatile and hard to predict, and this year is proving no different,” Durkin said in an investor call, as reported by Seeking Alpha.

Today, we announced that we had shipped into retail more than $1bn of Call of Duty: Ghosts globally on day one based on an average wholesale price. As expected, due to the console transition and digital distribution, this number is down versus last year.

This year, the sell-through curve will be different than in past years due to the multiple launches of new hardware later in the month and more days between our launch and the high-volume Black Friday at the end of the month. That said, it’s a very solid achievement and shows the tremendous confidence our retail partners have and the strength of the game and franchise heading into this holiday.”