Activision is claiming that the video game industry is showing a decline in pre-orders. CVG reports that chief executive of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg told investors that there are many reasons for the perceived fall in pre-orders across the entire industry.
“It’s important to just sort of reset expectations as it relates to pre-orders overall,” Hirshberg said. “You guys [investors and analysts] can see the same thing we see industry-wide, that there’s been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to pre-orders. “We think that’s happening due to a number of factors, things like increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles, titles being widely available on day one and the decline overall for demand on previous-gen consoles.”
While Hirshberg warned that pre-orders are lowering industry-wide, Destiny is breaking records with its pre-orders, calling it “on track to be the largest ever for new IP in the industry.” 
Hirshberg stated that Activision is becoming more concerned with purchase intent as opposed to actual pre-order numbers. Destiny, for example, is at an “all-time high and climbing” in terms of audience awareness.
“Purchase intent is similarly at an all-time high and rising when compared to any other new IP, and we had 4.6 million players in the beta with almost universally positive sentiment,” he added. “Overall, we’re really pleased with the performance of the Destiny beta. We’re pleased with the broad range of metrics that we look at to gauge momentum and our chances for success.”
Destiny is believed to have one of the highest budgets in industry history, although Bungie recently denied claims that the game is going to cost $500 million. For more on Destiny, check out our impressions of the game’s recently concluded beta.
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