Last year, GameDaily BIZ was somewhat surprised by the level of success that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare achieved. While the series had always been successful, we had anticipated that the third coming of Halo would be the biggest title of the year. The shift to a modern setting also seemed likely to annoy certain gamers, as all previous installments had taken place in World War II.

In the end, Call of Duty 4 proved Activision right and all doubters wrong – the game ended up being the best selling title of the year and a multiplayer mega-hit. There were some who doubted the ability of Call of Duty: World at War to equal the success of its predecessor, because of the former game's critical acclaim, the different developer in Treyarch, and (ironically) the return to the setting of World War II. Despite this, the game still managed to be a big hit and showed that it might be Activision's most stable franchise, sales-wise.

We spoke with Mark Lamia, Studio Head at Treyarch, about taking that next hill.

The only thing that can beat Call of Duty is... Call of Duty
According to the NPD, Call of Duty: World at War was the second and sixth best selling title for the month of November. The title was number one on PS3, second best on Xbox 360 and the eighth best selling title on PS2. Overall, Call of Duty: World at War sold 2.2 million copies (including PC) during the November period.

The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: World at War led the way with 1.41 million units sold. The PS3 version performed admirably, with nearly 600,000 sold. The PS2, PC, DS and Wii versions of Call of Duty: World at War, however, sold only about 200,000 units combined, something that is surely disappointing to Activision considering the advertising specifically targeting the Wii version of the game and Call of Duty's origin as a PC title.

War is hell...

"Call of Duty 5 is off to a very strong start, with over 2.2 million units sold in the U.S. in November, actually above the 2.0 million unit launch of CoD 4, which went on to be the franchise's best selling game, selling over 10 million units," noted Todd Greenwald of Signal Hill in a recent analyst report. "It has also been the number one selling title in the U.K. since its release, and will likely be the top holiday title there."

"The news about our sales from around the world has been fantastic!" said Lamia. "We couldn't be more pleased. Coming out of the gates as the #1 in sales for the month of November, with so many other great games out there, is really exciting for everyone who worked on it."

They don't train you for this in boot camp
As with all previous Call of Duty titles, Call of Duty: World at War presents a wartime narrative from a couple of different perspectives. Unlike all previous World War II titles in the series, however, this game depicts the fight against Imperial Japan. The other major campaign focuses on the Red Army's desperate fight all the way from Stalingrad to the Reichstag.

Both of the campaigns offer different environments for the game, one concentrating on the bombed out urban areas of the Eastern Front and the other featuring jungle filled islands in the Pacific Theater. While this gives variety to the game, there's a general sense of "war is hell" with story sequences depicting the brutality on all sides. One major addition to the game is that of co-op play for up to four players, ensuring you'll never have to receive a "banzai charge" alone.