Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Campaign Review: Activision's First-Person Shooter Runs Out of Ammo

For the first time in five years, has failed to be the best-selling game in the United States. The Activision-published series has become a yearly blockbuster event in the gaming industry, but even impressive – if expected – sales of weren't enough to top the 2023 sales chart. It was Avalanche Software's which managed to unseat the reigning franchise, usurped by another incredibly popular media property.

Videogame giant Activision Blizzard is set to pay around $50 million to settle a lawsuit by a California regulator, a US news report said Friday. In 2021, California's Civil Rights Department sued the company, claiming leaders ignored staff complaints involving sexual harassment and discrimination. The lawsuit had a part in spurring Microsoft's acquisition of the company, noted the Wall Street Journal report.

Hogwarts Legacy could become the first non-Call of Duty or Rockstar game to top USA’s yearly sales charts in 15 years. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 broke the first-person shooter’s streak in 2013 and 2018 respectively, but other than that, Call of Duty has ranked number one every single year since Wii Play was popular all the way back in 2008.

It should come as little surprise, but the disappointing launch state of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 didn't stop it from being the best-selling game of November in the USA. New data from Circana confirms the FPS topped the charts last month and instantly become the second best-selling title of 2023, just behind Hogwarts Legacy. Interest in the latest entry made the overall Call of Duty series the second-most-played game on PS5 in November, though Fortnite did claim first place.

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for November, typically the biggest gaming month of the year, and surprisingly, the results weren’t that great. Players spent $5.9 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in November, a 9 percent year-on-year decrease. This was largely driven by a 24 percent drop in hardware spending, with all consoles being down double digits year-on-year. The PlayStation 5 was the #1 console, followed by the Xbox Series X/S, with the Switch really dropping off this season. It seems like inflation, and rumors that a new Switch is right around the corner, likely impacted hardware sales this year.

Video game analyst group Circana has released its November 2023 U.S. Video Game Market Highlights report and in it, the company reveals that, unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was the best-selling game of the month. It launched on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on November 10 and is already the second best-selling game of 2023, behind Hogwarts Legacy. 

Xbox has been surprisingly robust with its selection of post-Black Friday offerings, and continues to overshadow the competition when it comes to next-level discounts this close to the holidays. Xbox Series X consoles are officially on sale right now, alongside Xbox controllers, and even the new Call of Duty has been discounted as well.

Despite overwhelming criticism against its campaign length, not to mention reports of rushed development, Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topped US sales charts for November 2023, per Circana. Not only is it the fifth year that a Call of Duty title has topped US charts in November, but analyst Mat Piscatella also revealed that it’s now the second best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date.

Starting from tomorrow through January 5, 2024, we’re celebrating the holiday season with a month full of activities for our PlayStation community. As part of the PlayStation Plus Season of Play, PlayStation Plus members can redeem free avatars for PS5 and PS4 consoles, join eSports tournaments, earn points on PlayStation Stars and enter a competition for your chance to win amazing prizes. Activities for those who are not PlayStation Plus members are available as well.

Based on the namesake Japanese manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by the South Korean artist Boichi, is a post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure anime TV show. The plot predominantly revolves around 16-year-old prodigy Senku Ishigami, who is petrified along with the rest of the world when a mysterious flash appears out of nowhere in 2019. Three thousand and seven hundred years later, Senku is revived and subsequently resolves to restart human civilization with his extensive knowledge of science.

Today, December 9, has become a monumental day in the artificial intelligence space as a major regulatory hurdle was crossed. After more than a year spent in debates, protests, and discussions, Europe has finally reached a provisional deal on landmark European Union (EU) rules governing the use of AI, popularly known as the AI Act. In other news, a poster on X highlighted that Grok, the xAI chatbot, leans left libertarian politically, after which Elon Musk responded that immediate steps would be taken to ensure the political neutrality of the AI chatbot. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

Epic Games has revealed the full launch lineup for Fortnite Festival and it includes songs from artists like Fall Out Boy, Kendrick Lamar, and, strangely, LMFAO. Quite the spread.