“Call of Duty” has seen its fair share of settings, both realistic and futuristic, reaching the realm of borderline science fiction. Maybe this has created certain misbalance In the game’s community and has managed to turn away some of the game’s original fans. Now Activision has announced that “Call of Duty” will be brought back to its roots.
The Guardian shares information on Activision’s statement that “Call of Duty” will be brought back to its roots. At the moment, it is not sure what that exactly means. Whether the game, much like “Battlefield 1” will be brought back to WW 1 - WW 2 setting, or some more recent conflict is not yet sure, but the days of future combat are over. The claim that disappointing sales of “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” has led to this decision is highly improbable, since each game in the series has a three year development cycle, which means that the newest “Call of Duty” game is almost finished at the moment of writing. More likely it is either a lack of artistic inspiration for further development of the series, or an attempt to bring back veteran players of the game, who have been turned away by the changing game scenery and pace.
Forbes Magazine shares the theory that it is the constant change of setting, which has turned away players from “Call of Duty”. In their article it is stated that the problem may not be in problems with the setting itself, as the trend of a continuously faster gameplay with each installment, sacrificing the tactical element to pure reaction. As a bigger problem of the series it is stated the lack of diversity in the gameplay, than the setting itself. If the three studios working on the “Call of Duty” series make three games in separate timelines and not consecutive periods, than the market will most probably normalize, as all the fans will have something which they desire available for purchase.
Just how low were the sales of “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare”? In the first week of the game’s release it has sold 1.8 million copies. This includes physical copies sold on PS 4, XBOX One and the digital sales secured through Steam. Looking at the numbers, one might say that it is quite the accomplishment, since some titles struggle to reach a million sales in months. The truth is that the numbers are only bad in comparison with the previous installments in the series, where in the same time span, there have been sold over 5 million copies. Is it the setting, or the fact that they kept “CoD: Modern Warfare Remastered” as a ransom victim, people will never know, but the facts are down on the table.
