Modern Warfare 2 outsold Avatar, claims developer

First-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has grossed more than $1bn (£625m) in worldwide retail sales since its November launch, raking in more cash during its first five days on sale than blockbuster movie Avatar managed to do, the game's developer has claimed. Over half of the game’s global sales revenues – some $ …

[Scott 9]

It's a question how good either were

MW2 has gotten endless howls from the PC crowd due to the changes in the multiplayer, while the console ports have fared better. But basically I felt let down, the single player I finished in one long evening, and the multiplayer is more like Call of Duty 4.1, not that big a change.

"Avatar" I think has this "Titanic" effect going on. During it's release people raved about Titanic, a lot of it due to the special effects, and today it isn't thought of so well. Ghostbusters also comes to mind, although I think that was more audience effect, seeing it on TV deflates it. I thought Avatar was a pretty stupid movie, yes, groundbreaking effects, but I honestly would have titled it "Dances With Wolves meets the Smurfs in Vietnam."

So there.

[criscros]

It was Pocahontas actually

http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

[Sly]

heh... nice catch

re: title

[David Edwards]

Box office records?

Are they inflationadjusted. Surley each years box office smash will gross mroe than the previous simply as a factor of inflation.

And re "reach" of Games vs Movies. More people will haev seen Avatar as you said, but more "hours" will have been spent plaing the game id expect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't...

...call me Shirley.

[jonmonkeys]

My efforts

Yeah let's see how their next release does, after I try to discourage everyone from buying it using any means necessary.

Yeah I'm a disgruntled PC gamer. But you would be too if you were knifed through a wall, had taken an average of 15 minutes to join a game server, constantly found that connection speed matched that of an ISDN line or worse when using 50mb cable, grenaded a billion times by people firing their stupid M203 randomly over the map, and finally missed countless amount of kills because the enemy has the ability to go prone instantly without disruption. And does. Frequently. Leaving me angry and bitter.

And yet, I can't leave the bloody game alone....I'm victim to my own stupidity.

[Dave Murray]

Avatar

Never seen it, don't intend to. If it came on the box I'd probably turn over.

I used to like Cameron but ever since Titanic I won't touch him.

[Anonymous Coward]

pointless attitude

well that's a pretty stupid attitude. Do you go through life depriving yourself of enjoyment over some childish belief that taking the equivalent of the moral high ground has any effect on anybody but you. How sad indeed

[Spleen]

Nonsense

Since when was refusing to see someone's film on the grounds that they previously made something crap some kind of martyrdom? Surely it's the opposite - it's just good sense to avoid things you won't enjoy. Particularly as James Cameron shows every sign of an artiste who's become infected with a belief in his own hype.

I refuse to see any film starring Meg Ryan (unless the title contains the words "Saw", "Hostel" or "Entrenching Tool Rampage" - still waiting), and she's only an actress, much less responsible for her films than James Cameron. But I'll still defend that as a rational position to the death.

[Magnus_Pym]

You go too far Mr Spleen!

"[Meg Ryan is] much less responsible for her films than James Cameron"

I think 'Titanic' is enough to damn any film maker without the need to hold him responsible for all Meg Ryan's travesties too.

[Paul_Murphy]

Also you can't pre-order cinema tickets.

well, not as far in advance anyway.

And if people waited to see what other people thought of the game/film then I would suspect that the film would be far far ahead of the game.

ttfn

PH - since I'm aware of her film, I don't believe there is a PH game?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cinema Tickets

Yup, you can for major new releases. We had them booked for Avatar back in November at the ODEON.

Avatar: Graphically nice, and the 3D helped a little for the effect. Story was pants and full of 'current political views'

MW2: Too short single player, and LAGGY AS HELL Multiplayer. Binned to go back to Killzone 2.

Paris, because I could play with her all year and not get bored..

[Mark Rogers]

War! huh! what is it good for

We can thank the media for part of that sales in their "reporting" on a certain part of the game.

[Jelliphiish]

marketing

seems he's had those gosh-darned extra ribs removed for easy access. now he can fold himself double with ease when blowing his own trumpet.

see also: "you're in marketing? kill yourself."

paris.. well,having a couple of her ribs removed would be entertaining..

[Lionel Baden]

lulz

i will be going to see avatar soon hopefully in the cinema

I will never buy Modern warfare 2 (well mebbe when its on sale for a fiver on steam )

[Arse Face]

a load of cod

Biggest anti climax of the year, MW2. Thought it was a load of over rated bollocks. Took me 6 hours to complete and i'm crap at these games. Needless to say, it got traded in before I even tried the multiplayer - knew it was just going to be more of the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

no dedicated servers on multiplayer

so I just played the single player, but I'm not about to BUY a copy unless they put dedicated servers back on the agenda

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand this story

You can't compare like for like. They are not alike. The Avatar 'game' is a pile of pants afterall.

@jonmonkeys.

Ahh someone who has played online.

Twin shotguns. Which ever cock jockey in IW thought that gem up. With dolphin diving, frog jumping, bunny rabbits on speed and two shotguns (and because they are secondary weapons you can also have noob tubes.) There is no point playing online. Assuming you can actually get online. Worst money I spent.

Maybe they can spend all this profit on some brain cells to combat the same thing that riddled BF 2 around 9 years ago.

And more servers.

[Toastan Buttar]

Record-breaking ?

“shattered theatrical box office and videogame records".

Has MW2 shattered the Titanic box office record ? Err.....no. Unless he means the record for first five days of sale, which I don't remember being listed in the Guiness Book of Records.

[Tom Adair]

bad comparisons

On the one hand you have a film where sales (of 5-7 quid a ticket) over a short period are limited by availability of screens/seats, and availability of people's free time, and on the other you have a game selling for 25-45 quid (standard version), where big demand was expected and plenty of products produced and made available to be delivered and sold in stores, and most crucially, it is possible for everyone who wants it to buy it in the same day, assuming there's enough till staff in shops and postmen not on strike.

[goggyturk]

Meh

Just needed to look at clips of MW2 multiplayer online to realise that it's just a sexed up version of the original.

There are more interesting games out there and there will be a lot more by the second half of this year.

As for James Cameron.... meh. Last decent film he did was Aliens.

[Daniel Wilkie]

Well...

Personally, I seem to stand alone, but I like MW2 and loath Avatar. Yes MW2 has some balance issues, but then even back in the days of Quake and UT, there were plenty of glitches exploited by players of dubious morality, never put me off them then, and I find nothing so satisfying as killing OMA/Noobtubers on MW2. True, people with a pair of shotguns walking round a corner can kill you before you do anything - so you find other routes that don't leave you in such a vulnerable position, or bang the room before you enter, whatever - there's always a way.

And still running around using a SCAR-H with a silencer, I don't use any of the common exploit tactics to defeat them either.

I also agree with poster 1 - excpet for I'd substitute Vietnam with Fern Gully but still

[Scho]

Well...

What I'd love to know is that this big thing happened that turned 90% of PC gamers off IW and MW2 by removing dedi servers, no community tools etc and el Reg report nothing. Nothing about pre-order being cancelled and it costing them serious money but with zero response from IW or Rob Bowles. ANd we had nothing in El Reg about it? Strange for such an uproar in the tech community.

[Ben Holmes]

MW2

To be fair to the people playing this on the PC, yes the port is horrible, and the multiplayer is a pile of pants. I'd be pretty pissed if i'd spent £40 of my hard-earned and been delivered that.

However, playing it on the 360, the single player is still biblically short, but the multiplayer is what makes this game brilliant. With the addition of the Special Ops multiplayer games, it's eaten up countless hours of my spare time. Easily got my money's worth out of it.

Although admittedly, I still keep getting mown down by countless players wielding those stupid dual-wielded shotguns.

And riot shields. I hate riot shields.

[Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware]

Re: Well...

Ahem.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/10/20/cod_mw2/

[Anonymous Coward]

Given how much cheaper cinema tickets are than games discs,

For how long?

Avatar 3D easily bust the £10 (decapound) barrier..

And for a family of four.. one copy of Mw2 Vs 4 Cinema tickets... which is cheaper? whih sold more family units?

As a comparison in terms of value for money MW2 wins hands down, and if you counted customer hours instead of cutomer pounds MW2 wins again.

Now lets see which wins in the pirate stakes.

[Anonymous Coward]

MW2

Better graphics than MW1 but missing a certain wow factor, especially the C130 gunship section in the first one was truly amazing. Multiplayer is good except for the stupid dual shotguns..... time for another patch.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: You go too far Mr Spleen!

Titanic has many faults but it's a staggering cinematic acheivement overall.

Also, I'm slightly disturbed by that commenter's apparent desire to see horrible torture inflicted upon Meg Ryan.

[Andy Enderby 1]

the moderatrix must have seen a different movie...

Whilst the moderatrix is concerned by a commenters wish to see Meg Ryan subjected to horrible slasher movie demise, I'm concerned that the moderatrix actually considers Titanic a "staggering cinematic acheivment"........ It was truly overblown, overpriced, histrionic dross, as is Avatar. An enormous budget and admittedly good SFX (in Titanic, those in Avatar seem to fall victim to the 3d movie cliches we've seen before, and whole lot of what could be termed rasterbation) does not a decent movie make. How about some plot please, some acting even, rather than the usual flavour of the month botoxed, surgically enhanced planks. When was the last time hollywood came up with genuinely intelligent Sci Fi ?

Hollywood.... it's not Lalaland for nothing.....

Moderatrix, you'll ose that hard as nails rep propping up Titanic ....

[Spleen]

Do I?

I rather thought you wouldn't approve of that comment. I will say three things in my defence:

1.I am a rational human being, as is Meg Ryan, and I therefore have no wish for her to come to *genuine* harm. However, I consider wanting to watch someone suffer *simulated* violence a fairly understandable impulse after experiencing the very real suffering inflicted by sitting through a film starring Meg Ryan.

2. Her gender has nothing to do with it and I would feel the same way if she were male. (Normally, responding to an accusation that hasn't been made is a sure sign of he doth protest too much, but I know what was going through your head.)

3. Even I actually was a truly sick individual who actually thought that actors should be horribly tortured for making bad films, at least I still wouldn't think Titanic was a good film.

[Robert Grant]

Value for money, though...

MW2...£26. Completed on Veteran, finished all the Spec Ops, got all the Achievements, Prestige 1 on multiplayer.

Avatar...£8 for 2.5 hours of film.

[Daniel Owen]

Enjoy both

See I may have a massive advantage.

I didn't really play much of COD4, and I haven't seen Titanic, so I can enjoy both :)

[John70]

MW2

IW alienated clans who wanted their own dedicated servers to run training and play in ladder matches.

IW alienated the modding community when they dedicated not to have dedicated servers so there was no chance of people creating custom maps.

For these types of games to succeed on a PC the games need to allow players to create their own maps and create custom mods.

It was for these reasons why many people cancelled their orders and went back to CoD4.

Do this claim take into account cancelled or refunded orders?

This reminds me when there was an outcry from PC gamers about CoD2 which had no anti-cheat technology which caused the CoD community to lock out their servers for a day as a sign of protest.

[Bruce Ordway]

Dances With Wolves meets the Smurfs in Vietnam

Great title, thanks....

[John Sanders]

I agree, very good title...

Very good title indeed...

[Michael 82]

Will watch / play both quite happily...

... but cant wait for the French & Saunders send up at Christmas!

You just know that they will!!