There are a few franchises it’s pretty easy to hate because they’re basically the same goddamn thing year after year after year. Nintendo at least only throws a new Mario or Zelda game at us every two or three years, and Pokemon isn’t aimed at adults. But yearly punching bag Madden comes to mind, and also “Call of Duty”.
But it was consistent: “Call of Duty” came out yearly and outsold the one before it. But thankfully, not anymore.
OK, so it’s not a disaster, per se: it’s running about 4.2% behind the sales of “Black Ops”, and it’s still sold millions upon millions of copies. They believe it’s because less hardcore gamers aren’t buying as many games as they used to, but maybe it’s simply that familiarity breeds contempt: it’s not like the COD games have actually changed much (or at all) since the PSOne days. This is a franchise where an engine switch happens once a console generation.
Of course, it could also be a blip. We hope not. Activision could use a lesson in not beating a franchise into the floor.
image courtesy Activision