Vivendi CEO praises Call of Duty: Black Ops

Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO Vivendi

   The chairman and chief executive of Vivendi which owns a controlling stake in Activision spoke to investors in Barcelona yesterday at the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference. Jean-Bernard Lévy praised the recent success of Call of Duty: Black Ops which has raked in $650 million in global revenue in the first five days of its launch. The figure bests the previous 5-day sales record of $550m achieved by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. According to Activision, over 2.6 million gamers have played the game and have logged millions of online multiplayer gaming sessions.

   Activision Blizzard’s chief executive Robert Kotick said, "Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment, The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media. The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard’s leadership role in online entertainment."