MWeb has won the rights to exclusively host Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in SA.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, the sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the latest title in the successful Call of Duty series, was launched globally last month.
The Internet service provider's Cape Town data centres will host the game, which will benefit not only MWeb customers, but non-MWeb customers too, as they will not have to connect to international servers.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the number two selling title on Xbox and number one selling PC title for last year, despite only being released in November 2011," said Desmond Kurz, MWeb gaming manager.
"We are pretty sure Black Ops 2 will be as successful, possibly even more so, than Modern Warfare 3. We would expect to see a healthy growth in gamers playing Black Ops 2 online," said Kurz.
He added that Amazon had seen three times as many pre-orders for Black Ops 2 than its predecessor, according to Gamesindustry.biz.
Further highlighting the game's following, Kurz said 40 000 unique IP addresses connecting to the MWeb Black Ops 2 servers were recorded between the launch date on 13 November and 27 November.
Moving forward, Kurz predicts the initial interest in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be sustained. This is as a result of a significant effort that was made to target the eSports market, he says.
"If they are successful in their bid for the titles to be taken seriously on the competitive scene, the title will still be going a year from now, as strong competitive play generates good longevity for a game," said Kurz.
Online gaming uptake in SA has increased significantly over the past two years. According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the South African entertainment and media outlook for 2012, the general spend on online gaming jumped 25.6% from 2010 to 2011. The total gaming industry in SA is valued at a reported R1.299 billion.
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