ActiVision: Destiny Preorders tracking towards record

[wittyscorpion]

thedestinyblog.com/2014/08/05/activision-says-preorders-for-destiny-are-tracking-towards-an-industry-record-for-a-new-intellectual-property/

(Original source: files.shareholder.com/downloads/ACTI/3379396830x0x773936/367e59a1-e228-468c-bd15-6f5f7a04aa6c/Q2_2014_ATVI_Earnings_Press_Release.pdf)

From ActiVision's just released quarterly report:

Additionally, on September 9, 2014, Activision Publishing plans to release Bungie’s highly anticipated game, Destiny, for Sony’s PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 and Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox 360. Preorders for the game are tracking towards an industry record for a new intellectual property.

Kotick added, ”Over the next few months we expect to release some of the very best games in our company’s history. Blizzard Entertainment plans to launch World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor™, the newest expansion in the epic franchise, which more than 1.5 million Western subscribers have already pre-purchased, and Activision Publishing expects to release Destiny™, which we believe will be the largest new intellectual property launch in videogame history, as well as Skylanders Trap Team™ and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

[Den]

industry record for a new intellectual property.

That sounds like deceptively particular wording.
What is the current record for preorders of a "new IP"? Neither Blops 2 nor GTAV can fit that position, they are well-established properties.

[mannon]

True that, though it's still something. Wonder what holds the record for established franchies, GTAV?

[Den]

GTAV is the current holder of the "all time" preorder and day one sales record (new or established).

As... unreliable as it is, vgchartz's current preorder listings show Destiny at roughly 1.6 million preorders total across the four consoles.

[wittyscorpion]

Tried to fit "new IP" into the title of the thread, but don't have enough room

Current record holder of "most preorders as a new IP" - Watch Dogs: www.psu.com/a023320/Watch-Dogs-breaks-record-for-most-preordered-new-IP , achieved that 3 weeks prior to release.

Watch Dogs went on and had a 4 million+ opening week, with 8 million+ copies shipped to retailers to date. Seems like a pretty low bar for Destiny to break through...

[TheHawkNY]

Aug 5, 2014 16:22:14 GMT -5 Den said:

industry record for a new intellectual property.

That sounds like deceptively particular wording.
What is the current record for preorders of a "new IP"? Neither Blops 2 nor GTAV can fit that position, they are well-established properties.

It's not deceptive - it's targeted towards investors. Activision is trying to find enormous new IP, and they will milk a ton of revenue out of it. There's no question that once they create that successful new IP, that they'll make the money from it. Everyone knows that over the next year, they're going to make > $1 billion each from COD, Skylanders, and WoW. They're saying that they have another new IP that's going to make them a billion over the next year, and probably a ton more over its lifespan.

[mannon]

Not like it's the first game to have done so. So unless you spell it out for all the other preorders it's more of a footnote kinda thing.

[wittyscorpion]

Aug 5, 2014 18:14:17 GMT -5 Mousey said:

didn't the beta require a preorder for access?

I know all's fair and whatever, but doesn't that affect the value of the numbers in any way?

Yes, the impact should be significant, although not as big as I expected.

I thought with beta access anybody who has slight interest in the game would have attempted preorder-beta-cancel act, but that's not the case. There are 4.6 million players who played the beta, while there are only around 1 million preorders at the time (roughly speaking from vgchartz numbers). I guess that it is safe to say that the preorders are mainly coming from players who plan to buy the game any way, beta just made them preorder earlier than normal.