The CEO of Activision Publishing believes Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare can eventually outsell its predecessor Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Eric Hirshberg told GamesIndustry that although pre-orders for Advanced Warfare were reportedly lower than those of Ghosts, the newly released title is capable of outperforming last year's series entry in the long-term.

"We see purchase intent well above last year and we see engagement with the brand in social media channels all being markedly up, so I'm still optimistic," Hirshberg said.

A report from industry analysts last week claimed pre-orders for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare were down significantly from those of Ghosts.

Cowen and Company wrote: "Advanced Warfare is now pacing almost 40 per cent behind last year's Ghosts (vs 50 per cent last week) and almost 70 per cent behind 2012's Black Ops 2 (vs 80 per cent last week)."

But Hirshberg suggested these figures were not necessarily completely accurate, since they often focus on a single retailer (in this case Amazon) and don't take into account other types of pre-orders, such as digital sales.

"Preorders are a good barometer for day one, but I don't think they reflect the overall demand for the product," Hirshberg said. "[They] don't represent what they used to because of the move to digital and all the ways people can buy the game."

Advanced Warfare was released today on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Early reviews of the game have been positive.



Posted: Nov 05, 2014 2:06 pm
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/480216/activision-exec-says-cod-advanced-warfare-can-outsell-ghosts/