Call of Duty: Ghosts Tops $1 Billion on First Day in Light of Grumbling Critics
Despite less than stellar reviews the latest edition of the Call of Duty franchise pulled in over $1 billion in worldwide sales on its first day.
"Call of Duty: Ghosts has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet," said Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision Publishing.
The $1 billion figure represented sales in retail stores and may not reflect total consumer purchases, according to Activision.
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Still, Activision is still able to maintain that the "Call of Duty" series is "the largest console franchise of this generation" even if the games reviewers were less than impressed.
French site Gameblog gave the new CoD 7 out of 10 and added that depending on your playing style, there were better games out there.
"Want a muscular solo campaign and a frantic multiplayer that doesn't need you to hassle your buddies? 'CoD Ghosts' is for you. Prefer an online mode with loads of players, vehicles, and real teamwork? 'Battlefield 4' will make you happy," they wrote.
A more negative review came from Destructoid who gave the new release a meager 5 out of 10. The publication stated that the creators were getting lazy in development by hoping to drive sales through the popular game series name recognition while comparing the new edition to last year's Black Ops II.
"I still have respect for 'Call of Duty' as a series," explained reviews editor Jim Sterling, called the storyline of the game a "Lethargic … banal shooting gallery."
"If all you've ever really wanted is the same 'Call of Duty' every single year, then you're going to love this," he stated.
Still, the games developers are looking to the near future by adding voice control features.
The games executive producer Mark Rubin revealed that the Xbox One version of the blockbuster first-person shooter series will include Kinect voice controls, according to OMX. The studio is looking into the development and exploration of voice-driven gameplay technologies in the future.
"We're doing some stuff, not really mentioning it yet," Rubin recently told OMX. "It's mostly menu stuff, so you can work all the menus with Kinect--that's a big thing that Microsoft's pushing. We need to see where it goes before we jump into it.
