Despite a potential drop in CoD quality, how exactly does that mean Activision needs IW more than IW needs activision?

Isn't CoD:WaW on a higher sales curve than CoD:MW?

Besides, Activision owns IW so it's not like IW can pack up and leave.

No only the launch was, but now the 360 version is already below CoD4 and the PS3 version will follow in the next ~2 months.

This is only true if you ignore Wii sales...

I was comparing CoD4 to CoD WaW, so of course I ignored Wii sales.

However if you would look at the graph of the 360 versions of CoD4 & CoD WaW you would see that there is a huge possibility that in one year all 3 console versions of World at War will be below the 2 versions of Modern Warfare.(in the same timeframe of course)

Meaning the 360 version will lose so many sales, that not even the Wii can fill the gap.

Doesn't that support the argument that it should remain on Wii? An extra million+ to help plug the gap and all that?

Actually no. This would only count for Treyarch's CoD games.

Only if you blindly believe that the pattern won't hold true for IW's game as well. Considering how so many folks were convinced that WaW would do much more poorly than MW because IW wasn't behind it, I'd say you've got the burden of proof on this one, and you haven't met it yet.

Plus, I posted this at a Viper1 post rather than yours, but I'll reiterate it here: don't we already have precedent for what you fear, when Harmonix left Activision and was replaced with Neversoft? For that matter, doesn't the fact that Treyarch's game approaches IW's (despite being Yet Another WWII Shooter) mean something to you, especially in light of how sequels rarely do as well as their predecessor?

I don't fear anything.....

Your hyperbolic bravado playing off of my semantics is duly noted.

Treyarch tries to copy IW, but a true fan of the series and every other decent FPS gamer knows that they simply can't reach them. So if you mean approach in quality then no. It's actually vice versa. Treyarch makes a "good" FPS, while IW improve their CoD games from "great" to "excellent". Approach in sales, yes but like I said without IW, the CoD franchise will be insignificant.

It would appear, from the numbers, that there aren't enough "true fans" like yourself to make an appreciable difference to Activision's bottom line. While this statement may infuriate the connosieurs like yourself, it is economics, not relative quality, that will determine if MW2 will come to the Wii or not. Subjective hopes are irrelevant to this topic.

And actually FPS are gaining ground over the last years, so it's very common that FPS sequels sell more than their predecessor.

I'm too tired to discuss the first clause, but do you have any support for the latter assertion? Halo, Killzone, what else? Don't worry about this question too much, as it's pretty irrelevant to the big picture, and I'm likely going to drop this tangent after this, but I am curious to see what data you're looking at.