Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sells 12M copies, but company Activision Blizzard makes no profit

Daily News writes: "Although the new Call of Duty has sold more than 12 million copies, the company's losses grew to $286 million in the last three months of 2009 because of accounting changes and a hefty reduction of the value of its music games - like the popular Guitar Hero - and other titles for Nintendo's Wii console."

[kaveti6616]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahhahahahah.

"Karma's a b*tch." - Nathan Drake

[Megaton]

Didn't Kotick pocket something like 20mil because of MW2?

[Batzi]

he did earn 20M but the company got nothing apparently :P

[Saaking]

I don't know, but I think the article title is misleading.

MW2 made a BOATLOAD of profit; however, other Activision games have been failing miserably thus accounting for the loss.

EDIT: @Anorexorcist

Ahh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up.

[evrfighter]

BEST NEWS i've heard in awhile

/cheers

[Anorexorcist]

MW2 made a boatload of revenue, not profit. Profit is what is left after everything else comes into the fold (operational expenses, cost of goods sold, tax expenses, etc.) MW2 must have made a good amount of gross profit, but net profit is another issue.

It looks like Guitar Queer-O and the Wii have proven their uselessness once again.

[haqshot]

People on N4G are incredibly ignorant and uneducated when it comes to the business of video games. People give Activision Blizzard a lot of lip for their focus on profitability (just like every single other company in America). So now that you all have seen that their profitability was low even though MW2 prices were kept high and franchises were milked, what does that tell you? It should tell you that the company did everything it could to increase shareholder wealth and it still came up short.

The solution? Milk more and make prices higher... just like what they have been stating all year. Not so evil in my opinion. I encourage it because I would like the company that produces 3 of my favorite games (Starcraft/WoW/CoD) to stay in business and not go bankrupt.

Real World example:
Electronic Arts stock is down 70% in the last 2 years. Do you know what happens when stock prices get low? The company will either be in danger of going bankrupt or getting bought out. There is rumor out there that EA may be acquired by Disney due to the company's poor recent financial performance. Hope you feel comfortable having kid-friendly Disney at the head of the second-largest video game publisher.

[blackpanther25]

that why EPSN and Shows like "lost" are filled with mickey mouse and other disney characters/s

God some people....just because a company makes some of their revenue from children doesn't mean that the CEO(or the board members) of the company is a 5 year old kid from kansas.......

[sikbeta]

Even if the company deserves it, this can only go to one way, more layoffs and kod!ck will stay safe as usual in every company, so the things will not change

[SilentNegotiator]

You deserve every cent for giving us a five hour campaign and a severely under-tested multiplayer.

[nix]

karma's a b!tch. it is! q:

sorry for echoing.. but that was exactly what i was thinking the second i read the headline.

[Sarcasm]

All this means is less music games, and more Call of Duties.

[frostypants]

LOL @ all your disagrees...people here just don't want to or are incapable of understanding the business aspects of the industry, or business in general.

Activision stock is actually up 10% since earnings. This will of course come as a complete shock to these folks who can't comprehend the fundamental concepts of corporate performance like most of the people here.

[vickers500]

Naughty Dog's Nathan Drake did not coin the phrase "karma's a b*tch", so you can just put the phrase there without the useless video game reference. -me

[madjedi]

@1.12 Yeah cause everyone here on a video game forum has attended business classes in college, and couldn't possibly disagree with the quality of the games they enjoy playing be lowered. Due to the company sacrificing quality for ease of production/more sales.

You sound like the type of guy, that likes to quote laws in a discussion of rights or morals, then beat his chest about it later.

@1.13 Still at 1 bubble i see, nathan drake does say that in uncharted so the quote is accurate, but alot of people have used the phrase over the years in manys things, "you know the old saying".

He didn't say drake originated the saying did he and your still reading too much into something. Since it's a video game website, discussing video games, a video game reference seems appropriate. Take a midol already -me

[NateNater]

Good for them. I hate Activision after their milking of repetitive music games and releasing of unfinished games.

[meetajhu]

Hahhahahahaha i lost hope of Activison when they dropped Idsoftware! I think EA is doing a great job in making games for almost all platforms.

[Umbrella Corp]

Mainstream video games sell the most,not because of quality but because of the stupidity of many buyers.Not saying your dumb for buying MW2 but why buy it when there are so many better games?

[sparesoul]

Yeah, and how many copies are sitting at a Gamestop because we got tired of feeding cheaters xp?

[Foxgod]

With all the Modern Warfare competition coming up (Spec ops, Battlefield 2, Medal of honor), activision could be in mayor trouble.

Maybe they should invest in some new IP's, Call of duty will go trough some heavy times, now that every publisher out there wants to release a Call of Duty Clone.

Maybe they can create a really good multi platform horror adventure, Resident evil can use some competition.

[Saaking]

Yep, they need to invest in some new IPs. MS needs to do that same. I'm tired of the same old from these companies.

[evrfighter]

meh battlefield and medal of honor came before Call of Dooty.

where do you think Ranks and unlocks come from?

[Foxgod]

Medal of honor hasnt been in the picture for a while, but end 2010 we will get the first good Medal of honor in years (go fetch a trailer to see what i mean).

And battlefield got itself a good singleplayer mode, so it officially became a Modern warfare rival.

So yeah, they may be older, but they where no competition to Call of duty, until now.

[Jager]

"meh battlefield and medal of honor came before Call of Dooty.

where do you think Ranks and unlocks come from? "

Socom 1. Also brought clan support, online leader boards, etc.

[devilhunterx]

Mayor trouble? Get me Mike Haggar on the phone

[gamingisnotacrime]

just goes to show the consequences of selling over priced peripherals for mediocre games(Ride). I dont wish them any harm, but they worked for those loses

[JonnyBigBoss]

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

[jakethemuss]

By the sounds of it they changed there use of accounting standard manipulating profit. I'd say they got rid of some tied up debt while profits were high dropping profitability.

[JeepGamer]

Wasn't this the game that everyone was raging about and going to boycott to teach the developers a lesson? Do you understand now why they were laughing at the idea of your boycott?

[DARK WITNESS]

they may have laughed at the boycott, but do you really think they are laughing now after selling 12 million copies and still not making a profit ? I don't think so.

they increased the price with out reason, spat in the face of PC gamers, released a halfa$$ed bugfest upgrade, with dumped down gameplay mechanics to reward the noobs, broke the box office records at the time it was released... and as a whole didn't actually benefit from it, lol.

sure the boycott didn't work, but you know what... better to not boycott and watch Activision make a loss, then if everyone had boycott and they made a profit ( hypothetically ) which do you think is hurting Activision more.

[Enigma_2099]

... if no one bought the game... AT ALL. So they didn't get a lot of money for it... they still got some... I doubt that they're hurting at all. This "boycott" was so full of FAIL it's pathetic.

[terrorofdeath]

Great sales for a not-so-great game.

[Omega Zues]

Wait whats this! Milking Guitar Hero and shovel ware on the Wii isnt selling! SHOCKING!

[sashimi]

It's their fault for not being able to manage their IPs correctly and over saturating the market with a gazillion gheyhero games a year.I mean what did they expect...people just keep buying that sh!t year in and year out?

[Tito08]

This happened to them to after countless versions of Guitar Hero's games, which is very annoying!!!!!!

[blahblah123]

Glitches or not, HALO will certainly need to "reach" after MW2. 12 million copies? It will be awhile before something besides Mario rivals.

Anyhoo, I stopped playing and just went back to CoD4 on weekends. Much quicker to get a decent lobby. No nuke boosters!

[Shadow Man]

There were only 2 good songs in the entire game!!!

[cardgenius]

Damn....and just think. If they keep pushing out Call of Duty games like they have, its gonna go the same route of Guitar Hero.

[lonix]

Jebus chrism I think that just goes to show that he can't do his job everone should keep boycotting them

[themafia]

you know nothing about games. anyway im glad mw2 is getting what it deserves.

[QQcrybaby]

It was a loss due to an accounting change. The truth is that the company is still in extremely good financial condition.

[Half-Mafia]

i thought this game was meant to be the best selling game EVER.

12 milion is nathing compared to games like GTA, GT, the Sims and all them nintendo games.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

For failure by assumed success.
Blueprint.
For failure by continuation rather than innovation.
Blueprint.
For massive sales and massive profits....for a select few individuals.
This Blueprint doesn't work.It can be built but it doesn't last.
Blueprint.
For unforseen developments ..