During its quarterly earnings report, Activision revealed that it has sold about $1 million in Call of Duty 2 maps alone. Call of Duty 2 has consistently been the top-played Xbox 360 game over Xbox Live, and it appears as though gamers are willing to pay up for extra content.
In a question-and-answer session following the company's earnings call, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick broke down the number of downloads and money made by each downloadable map pack. The free bonus pack, which included two maps, tallied 334,000 downloads. The $5 Skirmish Map Pack was downloaded 105,000 times and generated $368,000, and the $10 Invasion Map Pack invaded 66,000 360s and raked in almost half a million dollars.
This is good news for gamers and game publishers alike. Not only will it extend the life of games and add replayability to them, which is something that must be done for people to adjust to the $60 price level, but it also opens up a new revenue stream for publishers and helps keep developers employed and busy. Activision was smart in releasing a couple of free maps first, so as to prove the quality of the ones for sale and get gamers hooked on using additional content. Ultimately, extending the life (and revenue potential) of Call of Duty 2 may also serve the purpose of allowing Call of Duty 3 to enjoy more time in the oven. Too often sequels get rushed to market too soon, but if this profitability can even get the developers of Call of Duty 3 one or two extra months, then the game ends up being all the better for it.
Now if only companies could make enough from online downloads so as to do away with in-game advertising... I can dream, can't I?
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