‘Call of Duty’ sequel won’t break records: analysts

Activition Blizzard’s hotly anticipated “Call of Duty” sequel may have a hard time living up to its franchise sales record, analysts warned recently.

Despite being the latest iteration of one of the most popular video games in history, “Call of Duty: Ghost,” out Tuesday for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and other consoles, will fall prey to tough competition and poor timing, the analysts said.

“After years of breaking records we don’t expect ‘Ghosts’ to continue this steak,” analyst Drew Crum of Stifel said of the popular franchise in a recent research note. “From our diligence we believe pre-orders of ‘Ghosts’ continue to trail [predecessor] ‘Black Ops II,’ and by a wide margin,” Crum said.

Some watchers cite increased competition from games such as Disney’s”Infinity” and Electronic Arts’ “Battlefield 4” as the reason for the expected slump.

But also playing into the lower forecasts are a new generation of game consoles expected to flood the market in coming months, which may delay software purchases, said Chris Merwin, who follows Activision for Barclays.

Merwin is predicting unit sales of “Ghosts” to trail unit sales of “Black Ops” by 10 percent in the first quarter of its release, he said.

Investors, however, seem to be shrugging off sagging expectations for “Ghosts” sales, even as competitor Take-Two Interactive shattered expectations for sales of “Grand Theft Auto V.”

Last week it told investors that it has shipped a colossal 29 million copies of the game thus far.

Shares of Activision are up a whopping 58 percent this year to $16.84.

Perhaps this is because the “Call of Duty” franchise has been a reliable source of revenue for Activision since the first generation was launched in 2003.

Each of the last four annual releases have sold tens of millions of copies, including 17.5 million for its blockbuster “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” released in 2011, according to data tracker NPD Group.