Are Black Ops II sales numbers inflated?

Based on a small HoC sample

Call of Duty Black Ops II is going to sell in record numbers. There is no arguing with that. It will be a best seller, it will most likely beat out Halo 4's numbers as well as last year's Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and the last Call of Duty Black Ops. But are the sale numbers legitimate or are they inflated by confused and desperate Black Ops fans.

Let's check our facts through a small sample of HoC clan members:

Blackwalt:

Okay so this is totally not my fault but... I purchased a copy of the Call of Duty Black Ops II Care Package pre-ordered through EBgames. The day before driving over to pick it up I received an email from Walmart "Your receipt for order #254627699." What the...

Yes, being an avid reader of Coxxorz's Random Hot Gaming Deals I had pre-ordered Black Ops II from Walmart when they offered it at $39.99.

So two copies but it was an accident I swear.

Number of copies of Black Ops II purchased: 2

Graybush:

Yesterday I received an email from Graybush with a very ugly fact in it.

"On a worse note, I don't have my copy yet!"

So imagine my surprise when last night shortly after Graybush signed into Live I got the message on my Xbox Graybush is playing CoD Black Ops 2.

I guess his copy came in. Great! Zombies!

So we played zombie mode for a while and it was good. But we weren't playing the Nuketown map.

Blackwalt: "Graybush, don't you have the Nuketown map?"

Graybush: "No, I haven't got my Hardened edition yet."

Blackwalt: "What copy are you playing?"

Graybush: "I had to buy another copy on the way home so I could play tonight."

Well. Of course you did.

Number of copies of Black Ops II purchased: 2

Coxxorz:

This might drag on.

I have been communicating with Coxxorz through email about my accidental two copies of Black Ops II. Here are some excerpts so that you don't have to slog through all of it...

His response to my extra Walmart copy: "Me too! getting 2 copies tomorrow apparently."

When I told him I had both copies in hand: "I got both too. Left at my door!!!"

The "Left at my door" refers to an ongoing issue we both have with couriers.

So Coxxorz also took advantage of the Walmart deal and also ended up with two copies of Black Ops II.

It's kind of funny that all three of us ended up with... wait, there's more!

Late last night at the last minute I received this followup email from Coxxorz about his two copies. With the subject line: "Uh-oh." Maybe there was a mistake and I was about to use erroneous data in my sampling:

"Got THREE packages in all today."

Sigh.

Number of copies of Black Ops II purchased: 3 (so far)

So based on a sampling of three HoC members the total number of copies of Call of Duty Black Ops II purchased was 2+ each.

Meaning that the sales numbers of Call of Duty Black Ops II have been artificially inflated. So when you start reading all the news stories about the record setting sales numbers of Call of Duty Black Ops II remember this story and discount their stated numbers.

Call of Duty Black Ops II sales number may be high but they have been artificially inflated by confused Black Ops fans who have driven up sales numbers through accident, desperation and/or the search for a better deal. At least, they have been based on our totally random sampling of three HoC clan members.



PS- anyone else end up with more than one copy of Call of Duty Black Ops II? Through no fault of your own of course. Let us know in the comments.