‘Call of Duty Advanced Warfare’ Sales Decline Forecasted

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is expected to see a sales decline after a forecast released by Cowen and Company today. The figures are not exactly dire, but show that the annual franchise may be finally reaching its golden years after saturating the market.

The exact figures of the sales decline for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, as predicted by Cowen and Company, were originally reported by Games Industry. The decline will see a drop of 40 percent in sales against the previous entry in the franchise, Call of Duty: Ghosts. In addition, a total drop of 70 percent is expected against Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 from 2012.

The data was extrapolated from Amazon pre-order figures for the Cowen and Company report. The report is detailed below.

“‘Advanced Warfare’ is now pacing almost 40 per cent behind last year’s Ghosts (vs. 50 per cent last week) and almost 70 per cent behind 2012’s Black Ops 2 (vs. 80 per cent last week),” the research notes explain. “We continue to believe CoD will be down meaningfully vs. last year. With the franchise facing two consecutive significant year on year declines in sales, we think it is prudent to assume it has peaked.”

While a lesser amount of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare pre-orders may signal a decline in the popularity of the IP from Activision, the company responded to the report by reiterating what they have said previously. Eurogamer reported on Activision head of publishing Eric Hirschberg’s feelings on pre-orders in the new digital age.

“It’s also important to sort of reset expectations as it relates to preorders overall. You guys can see the same thing we see industry-wide, which is that there’s been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to preorders. We think that’s happening due to a number of factors: Things like increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles; titles being widely available on day one; and the decline overall for demand of software on the previous gen consoles.”

As the next generation approaches its one-year anniversary, games like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be closely watched to see retail vs digital purchasing patterns by both publishers and retail outlets like GameStop who is still trying to find their footing in a world going digital. The Inquisitr has reported that the holiday sales season will be extremely important with titles such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare arriving for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Even with digital sales increasing year on year, companies like Cowen and Company still believe that pre-orders are the best way to track the health of a game pre-launch and can update their sales forecasts accordingly.

[Image Source | Activision]