ATVI - Newest 'Call of Duty' kicks off another run at best-seller crown

It's launch day for Activision Blizzard's ( NASDAQ: ATVI ) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - always a milestone on the videogame calendar for the game that's often the year's best-seller.

The company showed off multiplayer action in last month's Call of Duty: Next event, along with the unveiling of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (coming Nov. 16) and the mobile game Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

In its August earnings report , Activision noted sales fell thanks in some part to a weaker-than-expected release of the 2021 entry in the franchise, Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Still, that game was 2021's top seller , followed by the prior-year entry in the series, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

The CoD series has become the most successful U.S.-born videogame franchise, selling hundreds of millions of copies.

Amid its proposed acquisition by Microsoft ( NASDAQ: MSFT ) - which could be completed in summer 2023 - Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ) will pass up a 2023 release of a Call of Duty game, the first time in 20 years for such a skip .

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