Call of Duty: Ghosts Expected to Earn 'Well Over' $1 Billion

Activision's forthcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts title is expected to conintue to the success of previous games in the series, with one analyst predicting sales of "well over" $1 billion (£600 million).

Respected games analyst at Wedbush Securities, Michael Pachter, has predicted the game will sell 20 million units and when you add in some 25 million in-game content purchases, global revenue is likely to top $1bn.

Activision is planning on taking full advantage of the interest in next-gen consoles - Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One - both of which will have versions of the game. In addition Activision will also release Call of Duty: Ghosts on Nintendo's struggling Wii U console, which could be more of a boost for Nintendo than Activision.

The franchise has proved to be a huge success for Activision, with Call of Duty's previous iterations racking up revenue of $8 billion worldwide in the past 10 years, according to CNN Money. Pachter says that the franchise has already passed the 100 million unit sales milestone.

Band of brothers

Activision is hoping that playing as "band of brothers" for the first time will entice loyal customers to return to the franchise. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision's publishing division said: "It's the first time you're playing with the same band of brothers from the beginning to the end of the game, which is going to provide a richer and more relevant storyline to the campaign," he states.

In related news, Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer features have been revealed at the Gamescom videogames conference being held in Germany this week.

Notable features include more than 20,000 combinations for soldier appearance, new rewards, loadout options and unlocking new weapons among others, according to VG247.

Microsoft also announced at Gamescom that it is teaming up with Activision and Infinity Ward to launch a Call of Duty: Ghosts bundle for the European market. The bundle is tipped to be released in November and special Xbox-only bonus content will be available only thourgh retailer GAME in the UK.