“Call of Duty: Black Ops” continues to break 
entertainment industry records.
Activision announced Thursday that the latest installment in its multibillion-dollar franchise has generated sales of $650 million in its first five days — an 18% (and $100 million) improvement over last year’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.” That makes the game’s opening the highest for an entertainment property — of any sort — in history.
Gamasutra’s Chris Morris talks to Eric Hirshberg, 
CEO of Activision about why, despite a stronger opening week, the company predicts total sales of Call of Duty: Black Op will fall below those of last year’s Modern Warfare 2.
As Treyarch and Activision’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops continues to smash entertainment industry records, analysts who cover Activision are scrambling to up their year-end sales predictions. At the publisher, though, things haven’t changed.
Despite the fact that Black Ops sales are tracking 18 percent ahead of where Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 was at this point it its life cycle, Activision is still officially estimating that the game’s performance will fall just short of last year’s sales totals.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops” 
continues to devastate entertainment industry records.
Activision today announced the latest installment in its multibillion dollar franchise has generated sales of $650 million in its first five days on shelves – an 18 percent (and $100 million) improvement over last year’s “Modern Warfare 2”. That makes the game the highest opening entertainment property – of any sort – in history.
Activision’s latest “Call of Duty” 
game continues to set records for the company. The video game publisher announced Thursday that in its first five days on store shelves, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” has generated sales of $650 million.
That’s $100 million better than last year’s “Modern Warfare 2,” which set a new bar for the video game industry — as well as the entertainment industry at large. Activision claims the opening is the biggest ever for any movie, book or video game.
Gamers have enthusiastically answered 
Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty,” as the publisher celebrated Veterans Day with a victory as its military videogame became the biggest entertainment launch in history.
That record already belonged to the industry’s biggest gamemaker when Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” stormed into stores last November.
For the second year running, Activision’s “
Call of Duty” franchise has broken all-time entertainment industry opening day records.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops,” the latest installment in the $3 billion franchise, had opening day sales of $360 million in the U.S. and U.K – a number no entertainment property (film, game or book) has ever come close to.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks 
forward from the tumultuous midnight launch of Call Of Duty: Black Ops to ask where Activision’s franchise goes from here, examining what Infinity Ward’s shifts mean for 2011’s CoD installment and beyond.]
As bleary eyed GameStop employees recover from last night’s midnight launches and fans begin tearing through Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Activision’s phenomenally successful franchise stands at something of a crossroads.
The fate of Black Ops is hardly in doubt, of course. Pre-orders are already telling us that it will dominate software industry sales this year. And while Activision is publicly saying it doesn’t expect the game to meet Modern Warfare 2’s numbers, several analysts feel that’s just the company taking a conservative stand to protect itself against investor backlash if the numbers really do fall short.
Chris Morris: Journalist 