OK, so picture this: you're making a game. It's a sequel. In fact, it's a highly anticipated addition to an almost spotless series, and is in particular the direct follow on from one of the best received games, both commercially and critically, of the past 5 years. What you have here is essentially a license to print money: a game that will sell like hotcakes made by Jesus himself, almost regardless of the quality of the game itself. So what do you do?

Well, I'll tell you what you don't do: don't ask Activision Blizzard for advice.

I am, of course, referring to Modern Warfare 2. A game that was destined to be a bestseller before it was even announced, but which the company seem determined to drive into the ground. Let's take a look at what they've done:

 1) The price hike.

They could potentially have got away with this a few years ago, but we're facing the worst economic situation since before most of your target audience was even born, so now is not the time to raise the RRP of your game. Heck, they could even probably have got away with it if they'd just done it quietly: when people got to the counter on release day, they'd have been annoyed at having to shell out an extra few dollars, but by that point it'd be too late, they'd buy it anyway. Rather than take this route, however, Activision Blizzard decided the best thing to do would be to shout about it months in advance, just to make sure people have enough time to get annoyed about it. Sure a lot of people will still buy it despite this, but they will lose a number of sales, no doubt. If nothing else, it'll drive a lot of people to wait and buy it second hand for less - which, considering how much development companies moan about second hand sales, you'd think would be something they'd want to avoid.

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