Will Call of Duty: Black Ops Give the Competition a Black Eye?

By now, you've heard the monumental sales predictions. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter recently said that, in addition to becoming the best-selling game of the year, he expects Activision Blizzard, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: ATVI) Call of Duty: Black Ops to sell 15 million units.His prediction might be a bit high, but it's also a no-brainer. The Call of Duty series has consistently sold several million copies year after year. In January, the LA Times reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 had garnered more than $1 billion in sales since its November 2009 release.While this is great news for Activision, it seems to be having a negative impact on the rest of the industry. This year more than ever, game companies have delayed their biggest fall releases till 2011. These releases include Sony Corporation's (NYSE: SNE) LittleBigPlanet 2, Atari's Test Drive Unlimited 2, and Electronic Arts Inc.'s (NASDAQ: ERTS) Crysis 2.While game companies often cite product quality issues as a reason for their delays, it is clear that if Call of Duty continues to dominate the sales charts, publishers will become increasingly wary of releasing games whenever a new CoD arrives.