Answering the 'Call of Duty' too soon: Game release ill-timed after Fort Hood
Filed under: Company News, Media
Should Activision Blizzard (ATVI) have delayed the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated video game of the year, while the memories of the massacre at Fort Hood are still fresh? Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, allegedly shot 13 people at the Texas military base last week. Law enforcement officials are probing Hasan's ties to terrorist organizations. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are attending memorial services for the fallen at the base today. With all of this in the background, the timing of the game's launch seems tacky.
Maybe Activision could have waited until after Veterans Day tomorrow. Maybe there is no good time to release the game. After all, the casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan continue. The latest figures show that 4,360 troops have been killed in Iraq and 907 in Afghanistan, More than 35,0000 have been wounded, according to the Department of Defense. And the group The Veterans of Foreign Wars estimates that since 9/11, more U.S. military personnel and veterans have committed suicide than the total U.S. dead from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
The massacre at Ford Hood occurred at a processing center for troops going to or returning from Afghanistan, a war theater being pictured in vibrant graphics and realistic sound in the latest version of Call of Duty. The result is awesome, according to game reviewers.
"But can it possibly hope to live up to the ludicrous expectations heaped upon it?" asks the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper. " In a word, yes, and however irksome the submit-or-die nature of the publicity swirling around its release may be, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 really is one of the best video games released all year."
Indeed, CNBC estimates that 5 million copies of the game will be sold, generating $300 million in retail sales. That's huge, but you wouldn't know it by the company's stock price. Shares of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision Blizzard are trading down from their recent Oct. 8 peak of 12.96, though they are up about 32% this year.
Activision is not oblivious to the criticism leveled at shooter games. The company donated $1 million to help veterans find work through a new endowment. But these types of video games are not inherently evil.
"Some of these games can certainly hold some educational value," said Jerry Newberry, director of communications for the VFW in an interview, adding that others have "gratuitous violence."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-10-2009 @ 4:02PM
ryan said...
35,0000?
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11-10-2009 @ 4:13PM
da governator said...
The timing of the game's launch was planned months ago, Activision had no idea the Fort Hood shootings would have happened. Customers would get annoyed and possibly lose interest in the product if they delayed the launch (e.g., Duke Nukem Forever, announced in 1997 and as yet unreleased). The Fort Hood shooting is obviously a tragedy that everyone should reflect upon in their own way, but depriving customers of something they had already preordered or intended to purchase would be bad business. And yes, I realize it's ridiculous to be defending a video game, but Activision has a choice here: 1) Release the game and potentially offend people who may not have even intended to buy the game, or 2) Delay the release, gain karma, but possibly lose customers in the worst economy we've seen in years?
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11-10-2009 @ 4:13PM
di said...
The game does not depict Muslim extremists shooting defenseless American Soldiers.......
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11-10-2009 @ 4:13PM
mickey said...
You act like they planned the release of the game after the shootings. Welcome to the real world. Life goes on. This game release was probably planned a year ago and impossible to stop a couple of days before release. Its sad what happened. That's what happens when you trust muslims. Life goes on. Get over it. On to the next tragedy. Welcome to our world, etc. etc. Muslims are like wild animals. You never know when they are going to revert to their natural state of mind.
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11-10-2009 @ 4:26PM
Ash said...
Don't you mean, "The shootings at Ft. Hood were ill-timed to mar the release of Modern Warfare 2"?
Not that the two are related in any way...
Mass Media! Making mountains of mole hills since Guttenberg invented the printing press...
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11-10-2009 @ 5:54PM
DJ said...
By no means do I condone the actions that happened at ft. hood but this game was set to release earlier this year and had no idea and activision shouldn't have to suffer because somebody went bananas at he military base. We can't wear our hearts our sleeve every time something like this happens. Guns were invented long before video games. its' people with guns that cause the issues. I personally don't believe
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11-10-2009 @ 5:34PM
calimusclebabe said...
This has to be be the biggest pile of crap reporting/article I have read in a long time. USE COMMON SENSE. The fort shooting have ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING TO DO WITH VIDEOGAMES, tard
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11-10-2009 @ 6:05PM
Dean said...
Have a beer with Obama and get over it
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