Say what you want about Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. No matter how hated the man is by the gaming community and his competitors, the fact of the matter is that his company makes money. This year’s highly anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops is apparently set to continue the franchise’s tradition of bringing in mountains of cash for Kotick and Activision. Yesterday, Gamestop revealed that pre-orders for the Treyarch developed Black Ops has surpassed the number of pre-orders for last year’s hit Modern Warfare 2.

Gamestop’s Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Bob McKenzie, revealed that the pre-orders for his company have already surpassed the record-breaking numbers set by Infinity Ward’s MW2:

This seems to match up with what Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson predicted back in July of this year. Wilson mentioned that he believes Black Ops will sell around 12 million units this holiday season because of the high number of pre-orders. Now, with the announcement from Gamestop confirming that pre-orders are indeed higher, it is looking like Black Ops will be another success for Activision.

“GameStop is tracking to all-time, record reservations on Call of Duty: Black Ops. We are ahead of where we were with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year, which previously set the industry standard.”

However, this may be the first time that a new CoD title fails to outperforms its predecessor. Wilson went on to say that he thinks that Black Ops will fail to match MW2’s 19 million units sold during its launch window in 2009. He predicts this will be the case because of a weaker marketing campaign and the fallout from the Infinity Ward situation.

It is hard to say whether or not Black Ops will outsell Modern Warfare 2. However, it is sure to be one of – if not the – best selling titles of 2010. While I have always viewed the Treyarch CoD games as slightly inferior to their Infinity Ward counterparts, it seems that Treyarch is really trying to take ownership of the franchise with Black Ops. The changes to multiplayer, a big name voice cast, and more zombies are getting me excited for the game, and I am looking forward to seeing if Treyarch can reach the bar set by MW2.

So Ranters, has anyone pre-ordered Black Ops yet? Is anyone tired of CoD and thinks that the lower predicted overall sales numbers are a sign that the series has lost some of its popularity?

Call of Duty: Black Ops is set for release on November 9th, in several editions, on the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PC.

Source: IGN, Industy Gamers