Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare broke several records in its first three days of sale, beating all other Call of Duty games this generation in that opening three-day period. The game functioned as a sort of “soft reboot” of the Modern Warfare franchise, last seen in 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
The journey up to Modern Warfare’s release was one marked by many highs and lows. The game looked to be making many improvements to the series, with trailers showing off some of the series’ best gameplay in years and some truly impressive graphics power. It seemed things would keep staying on the up-turn when Activision announced that there would be no Modern Warfare PS4-exclusive DLC, but fans soon found out about a yearlong PS4-exclusive mode that nullified the excitement somewhat. Still, it seems this and other controversies - like rumors of loot boxes and poor-quality netcode - couldn’t stop Call of Duty from selling as well as it has in the past.
Activision Blizzard announced the Modern Warfare records in a press release, saying the game has more than $600 million in sell-through during its first three days. Along with beating every other Call of Duty game this generation, Activision said these numbers made Modern Warfare the “top-selling new premium game of 2019.” Perhaps most impressive, though, is that Modern Warfare had the best digital opening sales of any Activision game ever, which happened to also make it the game with the most digital pre-orders on the PlayStation Network ever and the highest three-day sales on the PlayStation 4. Interestingly, Activision compared Modern Warfare’s “blockbuster” launch to that of DC’s Joker movie (Joker broke several records of its own), saying Modern Warfare more than doubled Joker’s opening.
Since release, the new Call of Duty’s reception has been generally positive, but reviewers seem to have found Modern Warfare good, but not great. While it has solid gameplay and many shocking campaign moments, some reviewers found its story needlessly shocking at times. This was perhaps expected, as early messaging about the campaign seemed to indicate it might have been pushed to be more controversial. This led to backlash against the Modern Warfare multiplayer’s White Phosphorus usage, since many found the inclusion of the controversial chemical weapon to be contradictory to the campaign’s supposedly serious, grounded tone (and reviews indicate this is still the case).
The controversy didn’t stop once the game was released, however. Besides arguments about gameplay elements, like the missing Spec Ops mode features and an Infinity Ward netcode explanation video, players discovered that the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare campaign attributed a fictionalized version of the Highway of Death - a real-world American bombing of retreating Iraqi soldiers during the Gulf War - to Russia instead of Western forces. This led to criticism from players and media, as well as review-bombing by Russian players.
Next: Breaking: Modern Warfare Launch Hindered by Server Issues [Updated!]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
