Some may scoff at the idea of a new Call of Duty game every year, but Activision isn't worried.
Despite the somewhat sluggish sales numbers for Call of Duty: Ghosts, publisher Activision doesn’t believe the Call of Duty series is suffering from franchise fatigue.
In a recent interview with Game Informer, Activision’s Eric Hirshberg stated that the arrival of new next-gen consoles is the main cause of weak Call of Duty: Ghosts sales, not franchise fatigue:
"We've been pretty transparent all year that we think, because of the challenges of the console transition year, that that was likely in the short-term. I think it would be a mistake to conflate the challenges of the console transition year with any indications about the health of the franchise."
Hirshberg also dismissed the suggestion that annualizing the Call of Duty franchise, something which EA has said they don’t plan on doing with their own Battlefield series, would somehow hurt the brand’s popularity:
"I know that Call of Duty's a polarizing franchise with some of the critics, and it's clear to me that not all the critics like our strategy of making a game every year, but thankfully our fans do.”
Despite fluxuating sales numbers and polarizing reviews, Call of Duty: Ghosts has still managed to garner some impressive stats on next-gen consoles; becoming the most-sold Xbox One game in the UK and the best-selling game on the PlayStation 4 in North America. Love it or hate it, it looks like Call of Duty is here to stay.
