Halo success bodes well for Black Ops

Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops could stand to benefit the successful launch of Halo: Reach in the long run.

That’s according to Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastien. The analyst claims the early sales figures for Microsoft’s latest shooter suggest strength for the core market, which bodes well for similar titles due in the next few months – particularly Black Ops.

While there appears to be some concern in the market that Halo may consequently absorb some of the market share opportunity for Call of Duty: Black Ops, we believe – conversely that the Halo strength is more indicative of a healthy core gamer market,” said Sebastien.

Additionally we continue to believe that recent stronger sales of PS3 and Xbox 360 units should benefit the leading software titles on these platforms over the coming months. As such, we remain confident that Black Ops should meet or beat our unit estimates this holiday.”

Interestingly, the core market was boosted in a similar fashion back in 2007 with the release of Halo 3. The Activision title that followed two months later? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Halo: Reach has been grabbing headlines this week, shifting 300,000 copies in the UK after only 24 hours on sale.