The team behind Modern Warfare 2 may be gone, but the Call of Duty franchise keeps rolling on, and analysts are predicting roughly 12 million Black Ops copies to be sold this year.

If there was any concern that all the corporate shenanigans that left developer Infinity Ward a shell of its former self might slow sales of the newest Call of Duty game, a quick look at the pre-orders should alleviate that.

According to Gamasutra, pre-orders for developer Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops are outpacing its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, and analysts are suggesting that Black Ops could sell around 12 million copies this holiday season.

Despite the increased pre-orders, Modern Warfare 2 is still expected to be the best selling Call of Duty game, with 16 million units sold during last year’s holiday season. Each subsequent annually released Call of Duty game that has been released over the last seven years has set a new sales record, but analysts see that trend ending with Modern Warfare 2. “Competition, weaker marketing, and the Infinity Ward situation” are being cited as factors in the lower sales expectations.

Still, 12 million units sold would still put Black Ops among the best selling games of the year, and still place it among the top 20 best selling games of all time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due out on November 9.

Showing 3 comments

  1. poults at 11:52am 3rd November 2010 U both think idiots! Its PAY to buy guns and stuff, makes it more interesting NOT PAY to play the game! TARDS!
  2. rudd at 5:43pm 12th August 2010 yeah why would anyone pay to play a shooting game, definately wont buy if they do that
  3. nube at 12:33am 30th July 2010 If call of duty goes pay to play i'm done with them
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