Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision

We know, we know. We said that we wouldn't start posting again until next week. But as a full service blog, when our readers reach out with questions, we do our best to provide the answers. In the comments section of today's post titled "Goodbye To All That: Level Up Issues Its Brief Reflections On 2007 and Looks Ahead to 2008," BigDaddyDW asked:

On an unrelated note, N'Gai, maybe you can comment on the holiday software sales for the Xbox360 and the PS3. In particular, I have seen COD4 on sale for $38 no fewer than five different times between Thanksgiving and New Year's (Circuit City, Best Buy, Target included)...I thought this GOTY [Game of the Year] was selling well--if so, do you think that is related to the numerous sales? Or has it been holding its own at $60?

BigDaddyDW, you're going to have to wait until later this month for the December edition of Monday Morning Quarterback (no, really) for our holiday software sales analysis. But with 2.2 million units in sales in the month of November alone (1.57 million units on Xbox 360, 444,000 units on PS3 and 167,000 units on PC), we find it hard to believe that Call of Duty 4 was being price reduced by Activision because its sales fell off a cliff in December. Nevertheless, we turned to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for his thoughts. Here's what he had to say:

COD4 is selling very well, so much so that I think it's been positioned as a loss leader to drive store traffic, particularly at Circuit City. I've seen the same ads, and it is a retailer price cut, not a publisher price cut. There are differences in terminology between how the two cuts are advertised (long story). So the answer is that holiday software sales were great (more from GameStop on Jan 10), and retailers know that they can offer discounts to drive customers to their stores. COD4 has been holding its own at $60, as you can see here.

There you have it. Retailers are the ones cutting the price to help drive consumers into the stores, which means that what may have seemed like a Day of Defeat for Call of Duty 4 is in fact yet another Hour of Victory for the World's Largest Pure Play Game Publisher.

And now, back to the lab...