Year after year, a Call of Duty game hits store shelves and within about 24 hours, Activision's PR team is shouting from the rooftops about the series setting a new entertainment industry sales record. The most recent release, Black Ops II, is no exception.
But several other gaming franchises have had blockbuster opening weekends as well, earning more in a one- or five-day period than most games make in their entire lifespan.
Here's a look at the 10 biggest debuts in gaming history.
Level 7 Games muralIf you've ever been to a video game retailer, you know how persuasive those clerks can be.
One Denver salesperson, though, tops them all. He managed to talk a would-be robber out of committing a crime by pointing out to him that it was "messed up" to attempt to rob a locally-owned company.
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(Credit: Getty Images)While there's no shortage of cheap TVs, affordable laptops, and bundles of DVDs on Black Friday, it's also an incredible time to buy new video games.
This year in particular is seeing some amazing prices. As the industry struggles to boost its retail sales and two console systems hit their twilight years (we're looking at you, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), publishers are slashing prices left and right. It might mean a few hours of lost sleep, but for savings like these, that's not a tremendous sacrifice.
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(Credit: UTMB)Be careful mocking a teen playing video games. He or she may well be in a position to save your life someday.
A study at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston decided to pit a number of groups against each other to see who performed better using virtual surgery tools. The contestants? High-school sophomore gamers, college gamers and medical residents.
Read More »from Study: Teen gamers outperform medical residents in virtual surgery
Marc Pincus (Getty Images)There are plenty of Zynga investors who want to cry after watching the stock has plunge so precipitously over the past year. One of those is CEO Marc Pincus.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple director Bill Campbell, who was brought in to advise the social giant's founder earlier this year as things imploded, says Pincus was "discouraged" and near tears over the state of the company.
Campbell's intervention came at the behest of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the company's biggest investors. Bing Gordon, a Kleiner Perkins partner and former chief creative officer at EA, was the first to notice the problems at the company starting in April.
Read More »from Zynga’s troubles drive CEO to the brink of tears
Activision's cash machine is still running smooth.
In what's becoming a November tradition, the latest Call of Duty game is once again the biggest entertainment launch of the year. Activision announced Friday that Black Ops II earned over $500 million in its first 24 hours.
"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. "Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars,' the two most successful movie franchises of all time."
Read More »from Black Ops II pulls in $500 million in first 24 hours
Black Ops: Declassified (Credit: Activision)Call of Duty: Black Ops II is getting rave reviews, and judging by the early numbers we're hearing, it's bound to be another seriously big seller.
But not all versions of the game are created equal.
Just witness the stunning fall of Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified for the Playstation Vita. Intended as a companion to the console game, it was supposed to be one of the handheld's biggest holiday titles.
That's not going to happen, at least if critics have anything to say about it. Reviews of Declassified are just starting to roll in, but with an unthinkably low 29 rating on Metacritic, it's already got a shot at going down as the worst game of 2012.
Read More »from Call of Duty: Black Ops for PlayStation Vita deemed an “embarrassment”
10th anniversary Xbox 360 (Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft is sending out some early holiday gifts to long-time Xbox Live users.
With the 10th anniversary of the online service upon us, the console maker has been sending some of its oldest subscribers a special present: A brand new, limited-edition Xbox 360.
Xbox Live programming director Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb broke the news Tuesday, announcing on Twitter, "I can confirm we're surprising some of the #Xbox LIVE members that have been with us the longest with one of these."
Read More »from Microsoft hands out free consoles to its most dedicated users
David Patraeus in Black Ops II (Credit: Kotaku)Well, we know at least one part of Black Ops II's near-future vision won't be coming true.
While the Call of Duty series strives for a sense of authenticity amidst the over-the-top game scenarios — and it usually hits pretty close to the mark — current events are casting doubt on one feature of Black Ops II: the casting of former CIA director David Petraeus as the Secretary of Defense in 2025.
Read More »from Whoops! Call of Duty: Black Ops II stars Petraeus as Defense Secretary
(Credit: Blizzard)Three months after suffering a security breach that affected millions of players, Blizzard Entertainment is facing a class action lawsuit from users who say they should have been protected better.
Carney Williams Bates Pulliam & Bowman, PLLC, a law firm in the Central District of California, has filed the suit against the publisher on behalf of players. (It's worth noting that no user financial data was reported taken during the attack.)
Read More »from Class action lawsuit targets Blizzard over security issues
What worries you the most about next-gen consoles?