1. Market
I found a lot of sites online that show the sale of Call of Duty video games, and the Map packs
themselves are selling more and more each year. This shows me that people are willing to pay
money for new maps, for call of duty. They distribute the map packs as a digital download, or
add-on to their game for $15, or around £10. That means there is a big market when it comes of
add-ons for call of duty.
Activision Sells 18 Million Black Ops Map Packs.
Activision reported during a recent conference call that its digital revenues are up by approximately 22% to $1.7
billion for the 12 month period ending June 2011, and that this success can be at least partly attributed to the
success of Call of Duty map packs.
The publisher has reportedly sold 18 million of the 1200 Microsoft Point/$15 map packs, giving an average
player spend of $76 per copy of Black Ops, including both retail and DLC sales. This is an improvement on both
Modern Warfare 2 (11 million packs sold on 19 million game sales) and World at War (9 million packs sold on 9
million games). Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg believes that the increase is due to the base of Xbox
360 and PS3 units that are in the marketplace increasing by a considerable margin every year, and expects
Modern Warfare 3 to surpass even Black Ops' records for preorders. Call of Duty's worldwide player base is
now larger than that of Activision's Blizzard properties StarCraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft combined. The
entire Call of Duty series now has 20 million monthly users compared to just over 15 million for the Blizzard
titles combined.

2. 18 Million Map Packs Sold to 23 Million Black Ops Owners
There were quite a few angry people out there when Activision decided to bump the price of Call of Duty map
packs up to $15 each from $10. Some even promised to avoid buying the map packs altogether to protest the
"ridiculous" new price. Whether or not they stuck to that -- something tells me many didn't -- there are more map
packs selling now than ever before.
Activision revealed some numbers during an Analyst Day event today, including the fact that the company has
seen $1.7 billion in digital revenue in the 12 months leading up to this June. By comparison, the previous 12
months (up to June 2010) saw $1.4 billion, and the 12 months before that (up to June 2009) saw $1.2 billion.
That's only going to continue to grow with Diablo III on the horizon and Call of Duty Elite coming up.
It was also noted that more than 23 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been sold, with 18 million map
packs sold for the game. Modern Warfare 2 sold 19 million units and 11 million map packs; World at War did 9
million units and 9 million map packs. Keep in mind that each game had multiple map packs released, so it's not
as if everyone who bought World at War purchased a map pack.
The Black Ops figure also doesn't take into account the fourth, all-Zombies Rezurrection map pack. It came out
about a week ago and has yet to be made available on PC and PlayStation 3. People have been asking for a
Zombies mode-centric map pack for months, so we'll see how well it ends up selling, but you can probably
assume Black Ops map pack sales will easily end up exceeding 20 million.
It was noted that players have spent an average of $76 on Black Ops alone between the game itself and DLC.
That might very well increase as some players decide to pay for Elite with Modern Warfare 3. Combine that with
the fact that the number of potential customers to rope in will continue to grow as more consoles are sold --
helped along by the holidays and price drops like the PS3's recent $50 cut -- and you can see why Activision is
so heavily emphasizing Call of Duty.

3. Call of Duty map pack sales surpass 20M units
The day has come when sales of map packs — or downloadable add-on products for multiplayer online games — for a game are an
even bigger blockbuster than most games themselves.
Activision - Blizzard, announced today that the Call of Duty franchise has now sold more than 20 million units. At $14.99 per map
pack, that’s around $300 million in retail revenue. That’s got to be the biggest map pack sales ever; it makes sense, as Modern
Warfare 2, the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, has sold well over 20 million games, generating revenues well above $1
billion.
By comparison, big budget console games would be lucky if they sold 2 million units at $60 each, generating maybe $120 million in
retail sales.
Map packs are much cheaper to produce than actual games, though. So Activision Blizzard is very likely enjoying a healthy profit
margin on every map pack sold over online game services such as Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network or PC.
While console sales may be slowing down, sales of downloadable digital content for the consoles and PC games are clearly growing.
On Xbox Live, Microsoft gets to keep 30 percent of the transaction fee for games and game content downloaded over its online
gaming service.
If we assume Xbox Live got half of the 20 million downloads, that means Microsoft’s share of the transactions is about $45 million. It
thus is becoming clearer why Microsoft’s Xbox Live business has become a money maker for Microsoft’s game division.
One of the good things about map packs for Activision Blizzard is that they extend the life of a game. One of the bad things for rival
companies is that it means some of the biggest game fans will be tied up playing an older game — Modern Warfare 2 launched in
November — instead of trying out new games.
Activision Blizzard will report its earnings for the second calendar quarter on Thursday. Analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan
estimates the company will report revenues of $715 million for the second fiscal quarter ended June 30. He believes that Activision
Blizzard could grow revenues for Modern Warfare 2 further by launching a subscription for the online game sessions, which to date
have been free, with a purchased copy of the game.
The most popular add-ons are the two map packs for the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 game, the first-person shooter which has
become the most popular video game in history.

4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 makes $1bn a day quicker than Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 made $1 billion a day quicker than Modern Warfare 3, Activision has announced.
That's $1 billion in worldwide retail sales in 15 days since launch, based on Chart-Track and internal figures.
Modern Warfare 3 took 16 days to cross the $1 billion mark.
For comparison, James Cameron's Avatar made $1 billion in 17 days.
Since Call of Duty was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater
than current worldwide box office receipts to date for the top ten grossing films of 2012 combined, Activision
boss Bobby Kotick said.
Since launch, more than 150 million hours have been logged online playing the game on Xbox Live and
PlayStation Network.
Activision Publishing chief Eric Hirshberg added: "In order for Call of Duty to remain the entertainment
juggernaut that it is, and keep our fans coming back for more, we need to continue to bring fresh ideas and new
innovations to the table every time, while always staying true to what people fell in love with in the first place.
That's what we did with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and that's what we intend to keep on doing.
―This is an incredible milestone for an incredible franchise, and I want to thank every passionate, talented,
committed person on our team who made it happen."
While Black Ops 2 seems to be doing the business globally, in the UK it hasn't managed to match the sales of
previous games in the gargantuan first-person shooter series.
On these shores, Black Ops 2 is the fourth biggest UK game launch ever, behind Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3
and Modern Warfare 2. We know it sold fewer than 1.7 million in launch week because Modern Warfare 2,
released in 2009, sold 1.7 million copies in the UK during launch week. Black Ops, which released in 2010, sold
an incredible two million copies in the UK week one.

5. Activision triples profits thanks to Call of Duty
Modern Warfare 3 is Activision's eighth instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, Black
ops 2 being the 9th and latest instalment. Video game maker Activision Blizzard has
smashed third-quarter revenue forecasts by almost 20%, excluding sales of the newly-
released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the final three months of 2011, putting it
on track to deliver the highest earnings per share in the company's history. Activision
chief executive Robert Kotick said the record results – which saw the company report
net revenue of $627m (£390m), up by more than 18% on its guidance of $530m –
proved that games are becoming as important as film and television.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/game/3301076/activision-sells-18-million-black-ops-
map-packs/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/nov/09/activision-triples-profits-
call-of-duty
http://www.1up.com/news/18-million-map-packs-sold-23-million-black-ops
http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/01/call-of-duty-map-pack-sale/
http://venturebeat.com/2010/08/02/call-of-duty-map-pack-sales-surpass-20m-units/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-05-call-of-duty-black-ops-2-makes-USD1bn-
a-day-quicker-than-modern-warfare-3