Geeks emerged from their basements yesterday to do one thing — shop.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” — a blockbuster video game that depicts US soldiers reclaiming New York City from Russian invaders — was expected to shoot up sales of $340 million in the first 24 hours, on the way to breaking the franchise record of $1 billion in sales, according to analysts.
Meanwhile, “Inheritance,” released yesterday, the last novel in a pulpy fantasy series about dragons and evil kings, unseated the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson to claim the No. 1 bestseller spot on Amazon.com.
The “Call of Duty” video game, published by Activision Blizzard, is “an annual franchise and it outsells everything around it,” according to Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Yesterday, Activision raised its financial forecast for 2011, and hit a 52-week high of $14.40 before closing at $13.93, up 1.4 percent.
It was a very early — and geeky — start to the Christmas shopping season.