Console Sales

Activision Blizzard announced today that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues to set sell-through records crossing the $1 billion mark in retail sales worldwide since its launch in November, according to internal Activision estimates.

As everyone looks ahead to the possibilities in store for 2010, Nintendo of America is looking to extend the glow of the holidays with some fresh December sales information. The following items were announced by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata in Japan:

Activision Blizzard announced today that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues to shatter theatrical box office and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell through in dollars. The biggest entertainment launch in history set a new worldwide estimated five-day sell-through record of approximately $550 million, according to internal Activision estimates.

Modern Warfare 2's launch beat all previous first-and five-day entertainment industry box office, book and video game sell-through records*:

- The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)
- The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)

Nintendo's Wii and Nintendo DS systems claimed the top hardware sales positions for October, making them well-positioned to become one of the must-have holiday gifts for the fourth consecutive year. U.S. shoppers snapped up nearly 507,000 Wii systems in October, bringing lifetime sales to more than 22 million, according to the independent NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. Wii sales spiked more than 9.5 percent over September, a remarkable result, considering that September was a five-week reporting month for NPD, while October included just four weeks. Consumers were attracted by top software like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus, as well as the system's new suggested retail price of $199.99.

Microsoft Corp. and Activision Publishing, Inc. today brandished the latest weapon to help gamers take to the battlefields for the global launch of the year with the announcement of the Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console. Infinity Ward's "Modern Warfare 2," the blockbuster sequel to the best-selling first-person action game in history, "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," was the inspiration for the console's high-speed, low-drag, battle-ready design, which is available for pre-order today at U.S. retailers and in other regions later this week.

New research from media analysts Screen Digest (www.screendigest.com) reveals that global active online TV consoles will reach a healthy 79 million devices by the end of 2012, offering publishers and developers a substantial addressable online market to tap into before the end of this generation of consoles. Although online console gamers will become increasingly active in downloading games content, Screen Digest forecasts that these users will only spend an annual $1.2bn in full game downloads by 2013, an important but still limited 11% share of the total current generation console game opportunity, a market still dominated by packaged media.

Microsoft reports sales of Xbox 360 consoles "have passed the 30 million mark globally, with its Xbox LIVE community swelling to more than 20 million active members. After the biggest year in its history in 2008, Xbox 360 achieved the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009, up 28 percent over the previous year." According to the press release from Microsoft, the Xbox LIVE is now considered the world’s largest global entertainment network.