Today we bring you our last of three case studies (as part of an examination of the top selling games of 2009) presented by EEDAR at the recently concluded [a]list Summit by Ayzenberg Group. We chatted with EEDAR executive chairman Greg Short about Resident Evil 5 and UFC 2009 Undisputed, and now we're looking at the incredible success of Call of Duty: World at War.
As with any big launch, marketing of course played an important role, but Activision did something even better with World at War to really fuel its long-term growth: downloadable content (DLC). Activision recently announced that its map packs have combined for 4 million sold on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and World at War sales have climbed to 11 million worldwide.
So what did Activision do right? First of all, Activision set the stage for its franchise on Xbox 360 right away at the console's launch. “I really think Call of Duty scored... by being available as a launch title [with Call of Duty 2] on Xbox 360. Ever since then, the franchise has just been growing and growing. Call of Duty 4 was a real turning point – the game was amazing and people are expecting big things for Modern Warfare 2 this Christmas,” Short noted.
“With World at War, what I find interesting is that they've done so well with the map packs, even though they released so late (the first map pack didn't come out until 4+ months after launch)... and what that means is a significant number of consumers are still holding onto the disc and still playing it frequently. I think it shows you several key things about consumers; first, if the game is good enough and the content is good enough, they'll hold onto the disc and they'll keep playing it. Secondly, making people aware that the content is coming is key, and I would argue that if they had advertising in the box that the first map pack was going to be available in January or February, they would have sold a lot more copies.”
The importance of DLC in the case of World at War cannot be stressed enough. If you add up the revenue from the map packs (after Microsoft and Sony get their cut), it's as if Activision sold an additional million units of the game, Short pointed out. Yes, one million.
“Furthermore, it's keeping people aware of Call of Duty. People might play these map packs right up until [the release of] Modern Warfare 2,” he said. “Yes, they're cannibalizing their player base, but they're guaranteeing themselves sales. They've got a consumer base that can go year to year to year and play these games, and they're filling them with content all the way through. That's something that's a lot harder to do with Madden. How many times can you add a new field or feature or something?”
So essentially, Activision is gaining consumer retention while reducing used sales and locking out competitors in the genre at the same time; all the while the publisher is boosting brand awareness and keeping it high throughout the year. It's a very effective strategy.
Activision of course isn't the only publisher cashing in on the DLC trend, and the industry as a whole is definitely benefiting from the additional revenue (you just don't see those numbers reported in the monthly NPD figures).
“Resident Evil 5 , when they added the versus mode [helped boost sales]. Adding new functionality is what people get excited about with DLC. GTA is another great example, with Episodes From Liberty City coming out later this year and Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost and Damned. It's a completely different game but set in the same environment. So I think we're finally starting to see people hitting the right cadence of what DLC people are interested in, but I think we need to see better execution in marketing and making people aware of it, and better planning in terms of DLC being ready to go... but these are just teething problems as this new business model comes into the industry. I also think it's starting to make people think of games as a service, rather than as a product. The industry has a ways to go on that... but for a lot of these franchise-based games there is a big push towards treating them as a service. That's a big shift in the industry that we didn't see before connected consoles,” Short concluded.
