Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Hardly a surprise, really, but the Call of Duty franchise has managed to push 17 million downloadable map pack add-ons, and that's not even counting the PS3 Stimulus Pack that's just launched. That's a lot of map packs.

Nonetheless, Activision's focus is primarily on retail unit shifters. Talking during an investor call earlier today, Bobby Kotick elaborates, "To date, our audiences have played a staggering 1.75 billion hours of online multiplayer Call of Duty games," but adding that, "While our direct-to-consumer digital business is growing, our continued success will come only through the tremendous support of our fantastic retail partners."

And Call of Duty: Black Ops is getting ready, set, explode for what the company intends to be (another) biggest ever video game launch. "We have every intention of doing this again this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops."

Controversially enough, however, Activision's already tagged the next game at a higher price than other AAA releases, and it remains to be seen whether consumers are going to go for this a second time around.

[via Joystiq]