You know, one of these days, I’ll understand why game companies and game journalists insist on making retarded comparisons to the film industry. Games aren’t movies, they don’t sell like movies, and games can stand on their own merits, artistically and financially. Well, OK, artistically, a lot of games are terrible, but then again, so are most movies.
For example, “Call of Duty: Black Ops”. It sold 5.6 million copies in 24 hours, grossed $360 million, and is apparently on track to pull in $550 million in the first five days of sales. That’s really impressive, a new record for first day video game sales. Activision has done really well. And then the writers over at Forbes have to screw it up by deploying fanboy logic: “Avatar only made $232 million in that timeframe, dur hur hur.”
Yes, congratulations, you suck at math. Avatar pulling in $232 million means it left “Call of Duty” in the dust in the numbers that really matter: attendance. Even an overpriced 3D movie ticket only costs $15. You know, four times less than a video game. Avatar pulled in at least 60 million admissions, and that’s not even as impressive as Titanic, which pulled in 128 million admissions.
So, yes, Activision has made a fortune and should trumpet that to the heavens. This doesn’t give fanboys a license to derp.
[ via the noobs at Forbes ]
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License to Derp! Finally, my biography has a proper title. To the printers!
i’d rather make more money than have more avatar fans.
But each sale of Black Ops is a unique customer. How many people saw Avatar multiple times in those first few days? That’s got to account for something, and perhaps close the gap a bit. Seriously though, who gives a shit? I don’t get it.
Forbes didn’t compare attendance. They compared money. They’re a publication about money.
Where in your warped mind does attendance matter anyway?
Generally, the more people see something, the more popular it actually is.
Cost to produce and market should be considered too.
Back in January Telegraph.co.uk compared Modern Warefare 2 to Avatar in terms of production costs, advertising, unit cots, profit (and made it pretty). Granted, at the time, MW2 had been out for two months and the movie had only been out one.
Here’s the story/comparison [www.bme.eu.com]
NB: both kept earning money well-after this, but generally a big movie trumps a big game, provided you have $300m+ in your budget to make it.
I’d say they likely did this to give the forbes readers a comparison they’d understand well, not to try to one-up that stupid movie. As pointed out, Forbes is about companies and profit, not popular culture.