Modern Warfare 2 Sales Unhindered by Controversies

Both GameSpot and GamePolitics reported yesterday that despite the recent controversies surrounding Modern Warfare 2, which is launching next Tuesday, game sales are projected to be huge.

Even USA Today picked up on the story:

"By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time," says Tony Bartel, executive vice president for merchandising and marketing at GameStop. "As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6,200 store network."

James Brightman wrote for Industry Gamers, saying:

Ever since E3 pundits have been predicting huge sales for Activision's upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which many believe will be the top selling title of this holiday season and possibly all of 2009.  Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, as part of his Activision earnings preview, put in his own two cents.

"We expect global sales to exceed $500 million in the first week following launch, and think that the company can easily sell 10 million units in Q4," he stated.

I think that Infinity Ward's ability to shrug off all the contention surrounding Modern Warfare 2 -- from the removal of Dedicated Servers, to the content leak, to the homophobic advertisement -- essentially comes down to a point I made in a few of my earlier blog posts: gameplay is the best advertising you can get in this industry. Publishers and franchises are to videogames what authors are to novels, and directors to movies, but even moreso.

Dropping $59.99 + tax on a game requires a much greater deal of trust in the product (and its creators) than buying a DVD or novel, or even purchasing a movie ticket. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has become a staple of the online FPS multiplayer experience. Many gamers, casual and hardcore alike, are likely to overlook a transgression or three in order to recreate or enhance the entire they had playing the original title.

More Modern Warfare 2 Controversy

As Destructoid reported on Halloween day, Infinity Ward (publishers of the  upcoming sequel to Modern Warfare) recently pulled an ad for Modern Warfare 2 that had been uploaded to Youtube. The reason? It was perceived as homophobic, and the outcry against it was massive.

The ad made a mock "public service announcement" calling players who randomly toss grenades in online multiplayer "pussies." Furthermore, the fake institution behind the fake PSA was "Fight Against Grenade Spam." The acronym is pretty easy to gather.

The original video has been taken down, so I can't really pass judgement on whether or not it was tongue-in-cheek enough to be poking fun at the standard player-base of Modern Warfare -- who tend to be reknowned for the sexism, homophobia, and racism they spew across Xbox Live -- or if it was an ad that was meant to touch base and connect with these players.

That said, I find myself siding with the folks who were pissed off. As someone who has played quite a bit of online Call of Duty multiplayer on Xbox, there have been times where I've felt so disgusted by other players' behavior -- or times when I was personally harassed, sexually and non-sexually -- that I've just had to turn off my console. I've experienced that attitude on this game more than I have on any other game, and I've played it far less than other online games like L4D or World of Warcraft.

It's a shame because I do like playing multiplayer, but I'm wary of ever bothering to use my headset. Communication is a vital part of the Live experience, however, you become a target for a lot of hatred both vicious and casual (which is even worse), when people can tell (or believe they can tell) that you aren't a white, heterosexual male.

It's surprising that Infinity Ward would release such an ad so very soon after the leak of their controversial gameplay in which the player briefly controls a terrorist. The "boys will be boys" mentality that reigns supreme on Modern Warfare is not something that Infinity Ward should be looking to promote in their new game. Giving a wink and a nod to homophobia to a crowd that is known for going out of their way to make the game less fun for anyone "non-standard" just smacks of terrible policy.

//Edit: Here is a link to the commercial. It is being hosted by a few Youtube users who grabbed a copy before Infinity Ward disabled the official one.

Can DLC Effectively Advertise a Controversial Sequel?

The popular, many-time award winning game Left 4 Dead launched for Xbox 360 and PC on November 18th, 2008. Since then it has amassed an extensive and devoted fan base across both platforms. Players team up as survivors who must work together if they way to make it through the through zombie-ridden territory to safety -- or, alternatively, group up as "special infected" and do their best to separate and incapacitate the survivors.

Controversy arose amongst the PC gaming community (in particular the Steam Community, as Steam distributes the PC version of L4D) when a sequel was announced at the 2009 E3 Convention. Understanding the controversy -- and why it was so specific to the Steam community rather than the Xbox community -- requires a bit of knowledge about how PC gamers think.

Unlike console gamers who are accustomed to purchasing new games on a fairly regular basis, where DLC (Downloadable Content) is not as integral to the experience, popular computer games are released less frequently. They are often supported by a wide net of casual but talented programmers who add their own modifications to give the game more diversity, and more relevantly, publishers of PC games are much more likely to distribute DLC that further extends a game's shelf-life.

The announcement of a sequel was welcomed by the Xbox community, who was eager for new content. The Steam community, on the other hand, saw it as a distasteful act of greed. Over 25,000 players signed a petition against the release of Left 4 Dead 2.

Valve, L4D's publishing company, responded by attempting to pacify the petitioners with promises of new DLC for the original game, as well as the release of more tools to further strengthen the Mod-making community. True to their word, "Crash Course," a new, two-level campaign for L4D was announced this summer and went live a couple weeks ago for both platforms.

Interestingly enough, the new content was free for all players running Steam -- but cost $7 for Xbox 360 users (who already pay at least $10 more for the original game copy than the less expensive PC version).

The question now becomes: will "Crash Course" pull its weight? It seems like a smart move. Ideally it will 1) alleviate some of the concerns of the Steam community by following a business model with which they are more familiar, 2) generate excitement for the upcoming sequel, and 3) build Valve's brand reputation as a fair and customer-focused game publisher. In the gaming industry the very best advertising is structured around creating a loyal fanbase.

Successful franchises are those that deliver quality in each of their sequels: big hit series like Grand Theft Auto, Legend of Zelda, Halo, Call of Duty, and so on are all clear examples of this phenomenon. Quality DLC such as "Crash Course" for L4D may well kick up the buzz for the sequel.