Call of Duty is the most successful video game franchise of all time. With yearly installments and three developers working on three separate games, it constantly remains the best selling game of each year.
In 2007 Call of Duty went from WWII, the setting it was founded in, to the modern times. COD: Modern Warfare was a smash it and to this day is one of the best games of all time. That milestone launched the franchise into superstardom and took the series in a new direction. The next few Call of Duty games were in the type same setting, until in 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was released.
Infinite Warfare took the series into the far future with space battles, lasers, and interplanetary travel. Even though it was the best selling game of 2016, it was one of the lowest selling Call of Duty games. These less than stellar sales showed Activision that fans may by wanting a return to form. They made a statement that this year’s game will “take the series back to its roots”. Activision’s COO Thomas Tippl said:
“Traditional combat will once again take center stage”.
There have been a few rumors of this before. They seemed to realize fans weren’t that interested in a futuristic space setting for their military shooters. However, at this time it’s unknown what the actual setting of the new Call of Duty will be. Some rumors suggest Vietnam, which has been a previous setting before. But it could be WWII again, seeing has the Battlefield games jumped back in time to WWI last year.
Activision has done a great job at keeping Call of Duty relevant for the past decade. With three developers handling three games on a rotating cycle, they’re able to pump out a game a year. It’s easy to see how it can grow stale, and the series has become the “cool new thing to hate” among fans. But numbers don’t like, and these games are top sellers each year. Although the past few entries haven’t met the high numbers as the ones before, Activision greenlit this year’s game a few years ago. It seems they had a plan in mind from the start.
