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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Self-Publishing   >   Sales   >   Call of Duty downloadable content hits 1 million in its opening weekend

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Call of Duty downloadable content hits 1 million in its opening weekend

By on April 1, 2009

Opening weekends are a staple of Hollywood reporting, and Activision is getting in on the act.

The World at War Map for Call of Duty 4 had “more than one million downloads… during its first weekend of availability (March 19-22) on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network”, according to an Activision press release published today.

It’s an interesting model:

  • Call of Duty 4 has sold 12 million units, which means the DLC had a tie ratio of 8.3% in the first weekend. Pretty good going given that DLC is still an early business model.
  • At prices of around $9.99, that’s 10 million bucks gross
  • It gives them a second bite at publicising the game, while getting awareness at retail that there is still consumer demand

As EA and THQ both talk about reducing the number of titles they release, the model of a blockbuster title with regular add-on content through digital distribution seems to be getting ever more entrenched.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com