Call of Duty Series Sells 20 Millionth Map Pack

In case it isn’t that obvious, downloadable content is becoming big business, and it’s not surprising to see new companies jumping on the bandwagon all the time. It makes perfect sense, too. What company wouldn’t want to sell a $50 game and then release $30 or more worth of downloadable content after-the-fact? The number is apparently few, with Valve being a major exception.

So far though, people seem to be eating this downloadable content up, even if they’re not completely on board with it. Some proof of this can be found in a press release sent out by Activision Blizzard on Tuesday. Recently, the popular Call of Duty series (one of my personal favorites), sold its 20 millionth map pack. That’s right, 20,000,000.

Activision first began offering this form of DLC with Call of Duty 3 in early 2007, and since then has taken full advantage of the series’ popularity in order to milk it for all its worth. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (CoD 6), which was released this past November, there have already been two map packs released, and judging by the fact that I seem to get loaded into those new levels often while playing online, I’d have to say that they’re selling quite well.

The interesting thing might be the fact that thanks to this DLC, a company can easily earn a major extra chunk of cash from not a lot of work – technically speaking. The game as a whole would without doubt require a lot of resources, but releasing five new maps with each pack (two of which are re-releases) wouldn’t require near as much effort and could likely be accomplished by only a handful of people. Clearly, Activision is truly enjoying charging $15 per pack as well.

I’m one of those people who hates the idea of paid DLC, but I admit map packs like these… I just couldn’t resist. I’m one of the suckers who would fork over the $30 for ten maps, and to be honest, I don’t mind, given the hours and hours that I end up sinking into them. Still, something about DLC rubs me the wrong way, especially since Valve very regularly releases updates for its games and doesn’t charge gamers a thing. It’s hard to not be envious of that model.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug 02, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that during the quarter ended June 30, 2010, life-to-date map packs for the Call of Duty(R) franchise surpassed 20 million units. Call of Duty remains the #1 best-selling first-person action franchise in the U.S. and Europe, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK, and has consistently raised the bar for the video game industry with its innovative and engaging online multiplayer experiences and downloadable content offerings.