UK Charts: Physical Call of Duty launch sales lowest in 11 years

But it's the biggest digital launch in Activision's history.

[OhReginald]

For obvious reasons. Publishers today are going all digital or slowly weening consumers to go digital without giving them a choice (i.e. multiplayer only games or exclusive digital only content). Simply to destroy pre-owned game market as the publishers don't profit from it. If you bought the physical copy of black ops 4, you wouldn't be able to access it until you download the day one patch that is the same size as the full digital copy download....

[Skull521]

I’m sure all physical media is at an all time low of sales. Simple fact is digital is better and everyone is learning that and taking advantage of it. The days of the disc drive are numbered.

[Mr_Commander]

your days as sane person is numbered.

[LOLcheeseORZ]

Physical is always better because you have more control and freedom over them.

[Rude-ro]

Simple fact is, you are right.
Just like iTunes etc.. people that want to play NOW on second one are boosting digital sales.
100% truth, I went digital with every game I wanted for the last two years AND my stance is against the digital only drm draconian style future that it will go to.
I just wanted to back up your point with honesty.

[iain04]

I’ve been a mix of disc and digital. Next gen will go all digital purely out of laziness. I just hate changing discs.

[yomfweeee]

There is a difference between digital music and digital games.

#1. No one ever really sold of their music. Certainly not like selling used games.
#2. Music is a much more mobile and quick thing. So the on demand digital aspect is much greater. Console games are different. While digital certainly is faster, it isn't that big of a convenience to change disc's when you're probably plopping down in a chair for an extended session.

[No Way]

LOLcheeseORZ - Like what? What type of control and freedom do we have?

[Fluke_Skywalker]

I haven't bought a physical copy of a game for a long long time. Simply because I can't stand the sound of the PS4 disc drive. Petty reason, but true story.

[neutralgamer1992]

Skull

I don't know why you think your preference is best for all. The day gaming is all digital it will lose a huge chunk of its base

It's amazing to me that you think every gamer has same internet speed and unlimited data to download

The days of disk drive are for sure numbered but not for another 10-15 years

Physical media still makes up for almost 50% of game sales. Do some research and during your research don't mix up digital sale numbers from actual game sales with the money publishers generate by the way of dlc and micro transactions

EA generated so much revenue from ultimate teams doesn't mean those are digital sales

That's where I see so many gamers like you who mix digital sales with digital revenue

https://www.wepc.com/news/v...

[Skull521]

Just gotta rip physical discs off like a bandaid. PC market has been all digital for a decade and no one complains, in fact people quite like it. Time for consoles to follow suit. If you guys want to quit gaming because of it that’s your call.

[Realms]

Sure skull sure whatever you say but you fail to mention that while PC for the most part has gone all digital they also have the lowest price point on games. Unless publishers lower the price on digital only games there is no way in hell I will ever go all digital and just because you find it convient doesn't mean everyone feels the same way you do about digital games.

[CobraKai]

In what way? I find no performance increase in digital vs physical.

Plus I will never have to worry about losing my physical copies (unless stolen). Plus I can also buy games that are no longer on the digital market. That’s the freedom LOLcheeseORZ is talking about. When everything goes pure digital, we lose the freedom to loan games to friends/family, buy preowned games, only having to replace a faulty system and not an entire back catalogue of games, not have to worry about hard drive space as we can delete the install and still have the game. When it’s all digital, we lose all that. Publishers will wont have to drop the price of their games. We lose out

[Artemidorus]

Explain how it's better.

[Gwiz]

" Digital is better " well 'ello there non conspicuous Activision person lol.

[bouzebbal]

don't ask me, i never bought one of these.
but i can say that people are finally starting to get bored of the same... but incredible longevity nontheless..

[Chexs1990]

That so-called simple fact only applies to the publishers. There isn't a single advantageous part in there for the consumer.
With maybe the exception of being able to pre-install it.

So, simple fact is, publishers are basically the owners of your content, not you. And they can discontinue availability whenever they damn well please.

[sonarus]

I can’t remember the last time I bought physical copy of a game. The ONLY time I buy physical copy is when I intend to give it away to a friend when I’m done. I don’t need rack to keep my cds in fact I have been buying mostly digital since late PS3 cycle. I understand everyone has their preferences but the value of physical disc just isn’t that great for me

[rainslacker]

All sales are up across the board. Some fluctuations each year, but overall, gaming has been doing better than ever, and digital is making some progress in percentages sold, but not as significant as some people seem to believe. It still doesn't make up half of the new game marker.

I don't need to rip off physical disc like a band aid. So long as they're offered, that'll be my preferred method of buying games. There is no indication that Activisions best digital launch is now a majority of the total sales. If they were, they probably would, because all the big pubs have been trying to imply that digital game sales are higher than physical since last gen. If they had a bonifide case of that happening, they say so.

[Hungryalpaca]

Many console gamers buy physical. I only buy digital on my pc. On my PS4 I buy physical.

[Muzikguy]

Nonsense. Physical will always be better. Don’t ever let a company tell you what you should be doing. I find it crazy that people will deliberately let companies have control over them and what they can do.

[Smitty2020]

I like to have physical discs mainly n wouldn’t want that to go away anytime soon but I do have some digital games

[Cobra951]

Lord, the denial here.

No one is a stauncher defender of game ownership than me. But guys, sorry, this ship has sailed. Disc distribution is quickly becoming niche, at best. Optical drives themselves are passe. You seldom see them in new PCs. Consoles will go disc-less at some point, I have no doubt. Even the diminishing crowd determined to buy physical still need to download hefty updates, often the first day. Connectivity is a practical requirement. And once connected, there is no reason to avoid digital distribution. Selling used games? Is that really still a thing? If so, how much of one? I haven't even thought of getting rid of my games since the cartridge days.

[kevnb]

Pc gaming is always a few years ahead, physical is almost dead there already.

[badz149]

PC and consoles are different. Used physical copies are useless on PC because there is only 1 license per copy but consoles don't have that kind of DRM and IMO it should stay that way.

[Inzo]

"physical is almost dead there already."

And yet physical media still account for more than 75% of all sales.

[4Sh0w]

lol, pc & console physical discs both only have 1 license per disc....physical disc on pc is dead because pc gamers are always ahead of the curve, digital is the future. I prefer gaming on consoles, but all the crying from these caveman console gamers is just silly, actually I think console gamers are the worst, they actually have slowed progress in many cases because alot of times they complain even when the industry gives them several options for gaming, they cry, cry, cry no make everyone game the same way I do. No, the industry is going to move along with or without you.

[4Sh0w]

Inzo, you got it backwards when you add pc overall digital accounted for 79% of all game sales in 2017, of course this is ALL game sales, most data suggests its about even on consoles but definitely when you include pc, alot of gamers on pc haven't brought physical disc in years:
https://www.statista.com/st...

[kevnb]

@badz149 I think the drm difference is slowing things down a little, but more and more I see less physical games for sale in stores. The file sizes of games are holding a good chunk of gamers back, but we will get past that. DVDs and blu-ray are dying off quickly as well.

[Inzo]

@4Sh0w
PC gamers are always ahead of the curve except when it comes to games, there the PC is mared by snor fest after beautiful snor fest. And no one is complaining about progress, I for one prefer physical media because the is more value in it for like trading in or reselling. So why would I want to go digital when I can save money?

[kevnb]

@Inzo what are you on about? Snorefest? PC gamers are a little more nerdy and arent into sports games and super linear games that pretty much play themselves just so you can enjoy the story.

[rainslacker]

I think the markets surrounding both is very different, and always was. There wasn't much of a second hand market for pc games. A lot of games could be hard to come by because of dwindling pc sections at stores even before digital became commonplace, which happened due to decreasing physical sales in the face of rather easy piracy through things like like Napster and an uptake of internet usage overall.

Console market was affected by this as well, at least the piracy, but up until last gen, there was no alternative for distribution. Plus it was dirt cheap to produce discs, and publishers weren't yet trying to kill the used game market or make a couple extra bucks by not printing games and cases.

Digital is fine in my opinion, but retail sales are still steadily rising overall. If there is a slump in software sales in the bigger picture, it affects digital as well. Having an influx of people willing to buy digital, or switching over to it, hasn't killed the physical market, and I see a lot of people greatly overstating the mix in sales between them....probably based on their own preference, publishers obfuscating the facts, or some misguided notion that they're making significantly ore off it, despite the console maker still taking about the same cut as retail, so they're making a few more dollars per game, and having less copies available through the used game market.

Physical.isnt almost dead. It still makes up a majority of new game sales. It's not even close like it was with cd music for a while. 20-30% is the typical percentage for digital sales. Some games may be a bit higher, but overall, that's the percentages. It would take an active effort by the console makers and publishers to really.kill it off, and I don't think they're ready for that. Ms showed that the market wasn't ready for all.digital, and even they knew they couldn't forgo physical distribution. Biggest set back for them was applying digital drm to physical.media.

[kevnb]

@rainslacker pc games started having trouble at retail around that time for a few reasons. Digital wasnt what it is today, but even right from the beginning steam started hurting retail enough for less and less stores to carry the games and the same thing is happening to console games now; its was a snowball effect. I also wont deny the parts to play the latest games were very expensive around the time the 360 came out, and the jumps in requirements were happening way too quickly for people to keep up.
Also, microsoft started a marketing campaign to get people onto xbox instead of pc, this included getting publishers to talk about how pc wasnt what it used to be and the focus had changed. It was also the time of windows vista and direct x 10. I actually think microsoft would still be trying to kill off pc gaming on windows completely if it wasnt for mobile operating systems starting to take huge chunks of market share.

[kevnb]

@rainslacker the percent of digital sales for playstation is rising rapidly, Im not sure how people on here are so blind to it? I get that you guys dont want it to happen, but its time to face the music. Its a snowfall effect, as digital sales grow retail carries less games which increases digital sales even more until you get to the point where pc gaming is now. Retail sections will get smaller and you will only be able to get the latest and greatest games (current AAA big marketing budget), smaller games wont even bother with physical because they wont be able to compete for the limited shelf space. All this is already happening and might even accelerate if gamestop goes under.
http://www.pushsquare.com/n...

And yes 2013 was too early to push people all the way digital in the console space, microsoft learned you have to let it happen gradually and not just force everyone into it.

[Muzikguy]

@4show

Who are all these crying people? I don’t see console players holding anything back. That would be limitations of the console itself. Quit blaming people for things when it’s nkt their fault. I’d say that there are some people that should not want certain things to happen in the industry but seem to not care. So much is detrimental to it, but it’s almost like people will take that with “convenience”. Not all change is good. People seem to forget that

[rainslacker]

As I said, PC and console software sales cater to different markets.

Articles like that conflate revenue with new game sales. Many people use this misappropriation as evidence that digital has taken over. On PC, yes, digital is pretty much the only option for the most part. But on consoles, that's not the case. Digital new game sales are steadily rising, but also staying about the same overall. There is a wide margin depending on the type of game, and the popularity of the game. But generally they fall within 20-30%. I don't know of any console sales of a game which has sold more than the physical release of the same game, with a couple exceptions where it was just a digital code in the box, so the retail sales were extremely low anyhow.

Digital has not taken over physical on consoles. It's gaining in percentages, but physical is also selling more overall than it used to. Over time, we'll see more digital gains, but many people are prematurely saying that it's the way of the future, without any understanding of how the numbers publishers put out are derived, or released with the purpose of obfuscating the fact that retail is still the majority rule for console software.

I do indeed believe that retail is starting to hurt because of digital, but it isn't just digital sales causing that. It is also places like WalMart and Amazon which hurt many retail store's ability to even stay open because of the excessively low margins that exist on new games for said retailer. Bigger stores, or places like Amazon, can afford it, because they are more than just games. Amazon can for the same reason, and having a comparatively much lower cost to operate for any given sub-product they sell. Digital didn't help either, because it means that a good portion of the market, even if it's not a majority, or even 25%, still isn't shopping, so there are fewer dollars to go around.

Smaller games don't usually bother with retail anymore. And a lot of them never bothered with retail before. The retail distribution process was out of reach of anyone without a publisher, or enough money to publish themselves and manage the supply chain, which is a task in and of itself. If we didn't have digital, it doesn't mean those games would likely go retail, it means we likely wouldn't see them. There were some strides for that kind of thing through publishers who you paid a fee to to distribute one's game, but they mostly just existed outside the western markets.

Then there are the games which just don't sell enough overall to make a retail release worth it, as it does cost more upfront money to do a retail release, as opposed to just self publishing on a digital store front, where the money is spent from the revenues that come in, and no expenditure up front beyond licensing costs for the consoles themselves, which is pretty small for indie games.

In short, digital is making strides, but it's not the majority of the market in terms of new games sold, and as long as publishers need those new game sales, and not just overall revenue, we'll continue to have retail sales. There would have to be a major shift in the market, or a concerted effort to just forgo the retail market, for things to change to the degree they have in PC anytime in the near future. Maybe in another couple console generations.

[Purrfection]

The game has no campaign and is basically an online game now much like Destiny. That's why it makes sense to buy digital purely for convenience. Nothing stopping you from buying physical and trading in your game in a few months.

[parris]

Hmm I find it strange that people are so quick to say it's digital that caused it's drop, it's like people are trying to avoid saying the more likely thing that CoD is finally losing some of it's interest as it ages and there are more options for people who want shooters. Across the board you see games that are on really high sequel counts starting to lose there steam, it's not really that surprising that CoD would be subject to this as well.

[kevnb]

Well if you actually look at the numbers digital is way up from last year and its getting to the point where it is snowballing, many retail stores have stopped selling video games completely and the ones that do carry less of them.

[JackBNimble]

OhReginald
I don't get what your point is.

1)You still have a choice to either buy physical or digital.

2)You still have the option to resell your game.

3)Day one patch seems fairly common this Gen also.
It's an online only game so...

[prankster101]

So much sense said. I wonder how long it will be before the likes of GAME and Gamestop feel the pinch...

[NeoGamer232]

For me, the lack of a true single player campaign killed any chance I would buy it on day one.

Digital or physical I lost interest when they killed the true SP campaign. For the first time since Call of Duty 3 I did not buy the game on day one.

[Sevir]

They aren't going all digital, the bandwidth simply isn't there world wide to support that move. It's still the lowest selling COD and it's likely because the franchise is running out of steam. THANK GOD... They need need a new franchise and they need to leave COD alone when this generation ends...

[asm120]

That sucks cuz I prefer physical because it tends to be less memory.

[rainslacker]

I think games like this tend to be more convienant with digital. It's a good pick up play game where you might end up.jumping in while playing a different game because your friends come on, or you just gave an itch.

[Razuel]

The X1 originally was going all digital, sell games cheaper and allow customers to resale their games via marketplace. That was until the idiots complained.

[NobleRed]

Never buy digital. If the game sucks at least you can sell the game.

[DarkVoyager]

You can check out reviews or watch people play the game online. It’s not like you’re going in blind.

[Sunny_D]

Except reviews are subjective. Everyone can be praising the game yet you may hate it.... and vice versa.

[playnice]

demos sure, reviews? What, seriously?

[CobraKai]

The only real review that matters is one’s own after playing it for themselves. A dung beetle’s opinion on the feces it eats is probably more valuable than the “reviews” people hold in such high regards.

What’s next letting Rotten Tomatoes tell you what movies to like and not like without seeing it for yourself? Sheesh.

[NonShinyGoose]

I like being able to trade something in and get some money back once I'm done with it. Can't do that with digital

[mcstorm]

You ever thought of just getting a refund?

[Sunny_D]

Tell me where you can get a full refund for opening and then playing a game you didn’t like?

[playnice]

@Sunny_D Costco :)

[rainslacker]

Refunds for.open games is exceedingly rare in the US. Dunno about the EU where they have some consumer protection laws about such things. Game stop won't even take back an open copy they sell as new. They have these stickers they put on for that, but they aren't consistent in putting them on.

[mcstorm]

Are did not know you could not get a refund in the USA but in the UK you can I've done it a few times.

[Moe-Gunz]

This is why I find Share Play a bigger feature than people think.

[KratosKonundrum]

This doesn't make sense. For example, Xbox and Steam have generous refund policies for digital purchases. If you purchase a game digitally and you immediately think it sucks you can return it for a full refund. If I go to GameStop and buy a new game, as soon as I unwrap it it depreciates in value.

If a game sucks there's no reason to hold onto it for more than a day. Otherwise you're "renting" if
one factors in the depreciation or you're attempting to scam the publisher by playing a game for hours and then attempting to get a full refund for hours of "non enjoyment".

If you disagree with me, let me know why. I fail to see it any other way. Convince me.

[Majin-vegeta]

You can wait a day or two and you can find a used copy.Still have 7 days to return it

[Inzo]

Agreed and still there are people who dont see the sense in that logic.

[TheOtherMoon]

Oh, good, another logical response to a change in market trends...

[REDGUM]

And yet this won't get anywhere near the attention that B5 got for basically the same title!

[SamPao]

so true so true

[Majin-vegeta]

Well yea...50gb update will do that.

[playnice]

it's probably an important factor... but there is much more to it.

[mcstorm]

Wow mk8D has some legs. Good to see both spider man and Forza Horizon 4 still up there to. It was always going to be COD and Fifa 1 and 2 and will be for a few weeks and then RDR and BF will join them making it the same yoy games in the top 10

[TheColbertinator]

Not too many surprises

[Immorals]

I'd love to say the sales reflect the quality (or lack of), but CoD sells itself sadly and is the biggest launch of the year

[No Way]

I wonder if game sells will drop due to the exclusion of a single player campaign?

[playnice]

I wonder that too and whether some customers are buying this year's COD unaware of the lack of a single player campaign...

[Skankinruby]

Physical games suck and online only games especially suck ass so no surprise for that.

[playnice]

I can only agree with 50 % of that so yeah disliked.

[Smokehouse]

I hope game sales get to the same point as movies. The physical gold editions should come with a digital version as well. I buy a 4K movie and I get a 4K disc, the HD Blu-ray and the 4K digital. It’s nice to have the disc and I like the steelbooks but I just use digital stream most of the time. The disc is for mobility, letting a friend borrow, etc. It’s all about value, the physical gold versions would sell out if they came with a digital copy and season pass for 100 bucks.

[masterfox]

lol I think this freaking horrible for Activision, if you didn't know digital sales is not the strong income when releasing such a big name game like this, the big earnings come from Physical releases, this article somehow wants to make COD like it was a success but in comparison to other COD is pretty bad, imo definitely affected they didn't include a Single Player campaign for me that was the main hook to just give them some attention and probably even buying it, but since they announce this was going to be just a huge mp only game I'm like not caring one bit.

lol at least in Fortnite you have to destroy structures and build structures, find weapons to prevail, in COD you just spawn in a huge map find some guns, wander around kill or get killed and do that process all over again, the worst thing about this COD is that you need to pay 60 dlls , from several streams I saw so far it definitely looks like a F2p game.

[MatrixxGT]

Funny you mention fortnite a real F2P game that preys on little kiddies to max out mommy’s credit cards for useless clown costumes.

[Kumakai]

Digital sales broke records. Just saying. There’s a trend. Digital is on the rise. Disagree all you want but the numbers are there. Just like cds to mp3s, dvds/Blu-ray to streaming and so on.

[playnice]

of course but there is no denying physical media is still going strong in gaming contrary other forms of entertainment.

[rainslacker]

A record with no context to compare it to is hardly worthy of saying a trend is happening. Physical sales probably still outpaced digital, and we have no idea how Activision derived it's biggest launch ever metric. Was it revenue? Did it surpass Physical? I doubt the latter, because these companies are more than happy to say how great digital is doing, so if they actually had some sales data to say it surpassed it, they'd be saying it to make it seem like digital.was the cool thing to do.

[Silly gameAr]

Interesting way to spin it.

[Donnie81]

Hey I didn't buy it because it didnt have a campaign and I'm sure plenty of others didn't as well. It will still sell a ton but I think activision will make sure there's a full story mode next year when they miss out on 3 to 4 million full priced sales. I know digital sales are up but you can tell from press releases overall sales are down.

[stuna1]

^^This^^

No matter how anyone sugar coats it, as of now sales are down. Series fatigue, lack of singleplayer campaign could both be attributive to the present sales. Like Donnie81 said the overall affect on Activision bottom line is where it will be felt. Because losing a couple million in sales doesn't offset the enjoyment of a Multiplayer only game and some of you will soon come to see Activision will potentially set itself up to become the new EA.

[81BX]

Need that steelbook

[Majin-vegeta]

Reddit/Ebay/craigslist usually have the steelbooks for sale

[81BX]

No. I need it directly from the source. I dont want grubby gamer hands touching it 1st, lol.

[Mekami86]

People saying digital is better is on crack what if after you beat a game you want to trade it in down the line or sale it. I admit I'm old school and will always love physical copies I buy digital as well but hope disk don't go anywhere any time soon.

[Benjaminkno]

Look a like digital allows you to share like Darth Gamer below us claims.
That is a good feature, and incentive to go digital.

[Darth Gamer]

I went digital so my son and I could share it on both our Xbox consoles and play at the same time. Great feature.

[Benjaminkno]

It would be nice to see them take more risks and try new things.
I haven’t CoD’d since BO:2

[Avalanche]

combination of digital downloads and having back to back less than stellar games (WW2 and Infinite Warfare)

[Kran]

It baffles me a bit considering the digital version is still vastly more expensive in the UK...

[Artemidorus]

Sign of the times, millennials are destorying the old school way.

People have an obsession of doing everything online.

[Gwiz]

It makes sense when a game relies on multi player to not buy a physical disc.
I have opted for the cheaper route on PC,I remember that people were outraged by Infinite warfare/MWR bundle.
Just compare those two,2 campaigns and 2 MP (I know Infinite Warfare was meh on the MP)How could we
even accept a MP-only for full price?.

[CitizenFour]

The title implies doom and gloom, but I think it's just the trending market. More people are going digital. It's not really indicative of a games success to say that "physical" sales are down.....

At least the article goes into more detail, but the title is clearly click bait

[rainslacker]

Well..It is saying the physical sales are down, at least over prior releases. Not that the physical sales are dead in the water or insignificant. It still tipped the charts at retail. Activision said it's the best digital launch for their history, but give no context on how they derived that metric, or how it's related to sales or actual physical vs digital percentages. Could just be a revenue thing, which could include special editions or season passes, or some day one dlc if its available. The big publishers have been obfuscating digital sales as revenue for a long while now, because physical still makes up a bulk of the market. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be saying that digital.surpassed retail if that had actually happened. They are one company, along with ea, that would be screaming that from the rooftops.

[Jayszen]

Black Ops 4 has no real singleplayer campaign and so many like myself who would buy a disc for the campaign have not bothered. Multiplayer gamers tend to favour digital versions so the large fall in numbers of discs sold is no surprise.

[CrowdNex]

Never buy digital. If the game sucks at least you can sell the game.

[dragonopt1]

It's easier to just buy it online and download it, why do you think malls and department stores are going out of business? Lots of people shop from home now and buy all their stuff online. I'm not saying EVERYONE but there's no denying "most" people get everything online now. The new Call of Duty is selling well digitally, it's even on gamespot.com

[Sirk7x]

Retail in general isn't going to exist in another fifteen years. Even food. Amazon is gonna come for that industry hard.

[rainslacker]

I dunno about most. But a significant enough portion to make it unfeasible to run a retail outlet. Wal-Mart had a big effect on this as well, and they take a lot of customers from other retail stores. But even the online stores, especially Amazon, are forcing them to upgrade their online portals. I think any major retailer that doesnt work on their online part of the business is going to have a lot of trouble the longer they go on. I know Lowes home improvement is.making a big push on that area with a new CEO they just hired, and just the announcement caused my stocks to go up.

[CDbiggen]

Probably means it still sold better then decent games.

[-volt-]

I think it really means that COD sales suck. Who keeps buying this garbage? It's like Madden over and over.

[Profchaos]

This game is pointless to buy physical as you need a 50gb day one patch but honestly no one outside of the gaming community would know this so I wouldn't blame it for the drop off of physical sales.

Until we see the total sales we won't know what the story actually is Activision tend to come out every year and say each cod launch is bigger than the last they said that with infinite warfare but it sold poorly and went free to play

[Richhard1]

Already outsold PUBG. Looks like BR is here to stay, COD franchise has been saved.

[Kosic]

When people want the game day one at hour 00:00 what way to get that guaranteed?
You go digital and most the time nothing goes wrong.

Go physical and you get either an early release, same day release or a slow stock and miss out 2-3 days.

It's no surprising this has better digital sales over physical.

[william_cade]

Of course it's an online game - why would you buy a physical copy? I am surprised it's even an option for this game.