Newest 'Call of Duty' kicks off another run at best-seller crown
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It's launch day for Activision Blizzard's (NASDAQ:ATVI) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - always a milestone on the videogame calendar for the game that's often the year's best-seller.
The company showed off multiplayer action in last month's Call of Duty: Next event, along with the unveiling of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (coming Nov. 16) and the mobile game Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.
In its August earnings report, Activision noted sales fell thanks in some part to a weaker-than-expected release of the 2021 entry in the franchise, Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Still, that game was 2021's top seller, followed by the prior-year entry in the series, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
The CoD series has become the most successful U.S.-born videogame franchise, selling hundreds of millions of copies.
Amid its proposed acquisition by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) - which could be completed in summer 2023 - Activision Blizzard (ATVI) will pass up a 2023 release of a Call of Duty game, the first time in 20 years for such a skip.