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[ChorizoPicozo]

Maybe y'all should stop doing yearly releases altogether.

This will happen as a product of mismanagement

 

[Northeastmonk]

They're still smelling their own farts. They basically made BO stretch into two years and now they need something in the middle? It'll still cause the same stalemate.

 

[Lokaum D+]

 

[Astray]

Damn those BF6/ARC Raiders sales must have put the fear of god in them huh?

It potentially means that less teams will be required to perform the work.

I can easily see Satya taking an axe to the COD teams now. He's been on an absolute warpath and COD essentially is the pillar on which his MS Gaming division is built now. Failure is simply not gonna be tolerated.

 

[user friendly]

 

[diffusionx]

took a whopping two years for Microsoft to destroy a series they paid $70B for

 

[Artistic]

If the game sold well and was received well then why bother making such statement?

I dunno, changing development and release cycles for one of the biggest/safest money printers of the last decade seems pretty huge.

Hopefully this leads to a refocusing on what Call of Duty does/did well and a re-evaluation on how they jumped the shark with it, repeatedly.

I'm more than positive Black Ops 7 still sold well. Changes in development cycles has been in talks for years now.

Change isn't always a bad thing.

 

[digdug2]

Cool, and I will no longer buy Call of Duty games based on your insurmountable greed. Stating our intentions out loud does feel nice.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

Too big to fail

EXCLUSIVE - Activision Leadership Isn't Worried About Battlefield 6 Because Call of Duty is "Too Big to Fail"

Activision leadership has been taking note of Battlefield 6's recent hype, but is not worried that the franchise will outcompete Call of Duty.

insider-gaming.com

 

[Pasta la Vista]

lol

 

[xanaum]

You guys really ruined Christmas for the Activision staff, huh? Especially those AI "employees" who wrote the script and all that disconnected crap.

 

[Kacho]

The November Circana report can't come soon enough

 

[ComputerBlue]

Wow, big deal, so they're going back to what they did for years up until a few years ago. They've only done this twice I believe. Modern warfare 2 to 3 a few years ago, and now Black ops 6 to 7.

 

[Plague Doctor]

 

[Topher]

The November Circana report can't come soon enough

Financials in January could be interesting as well

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Mownoc]

Yikes. You don't make a statement like that unless things are really bad.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Everything Microsoft buys turns to shit.

This is the beginning.

 

[EverydayBeast]

If you take out mw2/mw3 and now bo6&7 before that there weren't "back 2 back", the main friction with cod games isn't back to back, it's the cosmetics, DLC, season passes, concern over battle pass, an assignment of the menus (cod hub), gimmick playlists, endless prestige ranking etc.

Cod 2026 will be interesting, it will try to win over BF6 players, and those split on traditional shooters or the continued trend of looters.

More work needs to be done to the graphics, gameplay hasn't really changed for the good, the campaigns need clear messages again.

In the meantime, great to play BO7 on Christmas Day, cod's problems are easily solvable.

 

[Haint]

The player base is anecdotally tiny by COD standards, I'm actually getting randomly matched with many of the same people across different days in the big global queue. This has to be the lowest selling COD in decades.

 

[Unknown?]

I'm sure it sold well but probably took a huge hit from the norm, likely -40%.

 

[UltimaKilo]

That's quite the departure. Seemed like there was a new CoD every month and they were on CoD 317.

 

[diffusionx]

The player base is anecdotally tiny by COD standards, I'm actually getting randomly matched with many of the same people across different days in the big global queue. This has to be the lowest selling COD in decades.

yea you look at the steamcharts and it is shocking how low it is. Like, a quarter of what the last game (which people bought, but quickly checked out on because it SUCKED ASS) was.

11/24 - 165K average
11/25 - 45k average
12/24 - 93K average
Currently - 55K

I doubt it's much better on PS or Xbox. Actually it's probably much worse on Xbox because only Ultimate Game Pass owners get it.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

That's quite the departure. Seemed like there was a new CoD every month and they were on CoD 317.

Just curious how its such a departure?

They only recently really started this back to back years in the same setting, they are just getting away from doing that

Not sure people are understanding what is being said here

 

[LordCBH]

yea you look at the steamcharts and it is shocking how low it is. Like, a quarter of what the last game (which people bought, but quickly checked out on because it SUCKED ASS) was.

11/24 - 165K average
11/25 - 45k average
12/24 - 93K average
Currently - 55K

I doubt it's much better on PS or Xbox. Actually it's probably much worse on Xbox because only Ultimate Game Pass owners get it.

That's only the stupid COD launcher, right? If so, means not all of those are plying the new game.

 

[simpatico]

Shit must be far worse than they're letting on. Foreign men in suits who've never played a video game in their life are making nervous phone calls about "how sure of a thing is this GTA VI? You've told me that about the last dozen and we're down a billion".

 

[DavidGzz]

Conveniently starting with the month when GTA6 releases?

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Not sure people are understanding what is being said here

It's wild how hard people are misreading this, guess that's what's happens when you just want something to fail no matter what.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Just curious how its such a departure?

They only recently really started this back to back years in the same setting, they are just getting away from doing that

Not sure people are understanding what is being said here

They decided to milk the IP to death to the point where it got stale. Two entries per generation is enough, with an expansion in between.

I mostly play Nuketown on Black Ops 7.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

It's wild how hard people are misreading this, guess that's what's happens when you just want something to fail no matter what.

Like the comment right above you?

Conveniently starting with the month when GTA6 releases?

They decided to milk the IP to death to the point where it got stale. Two entries per generation is enough, with an expansion in between.

I mostly play Nuketown on Black Ops 7.

But this isn't what is being said, yearly releases are still the plan just not the same genre/setting in back to back years

 

[viveks86]

I know its not what people are wanting to hear but COD is still coming yearly they are just not doing back to back years of the same setting

Yeah that's the first thing that came to mind when I read this

to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.

 

[Stuart360]

Btw if COD fails then the Microsoft purchase of activision/blizzard will go down as a mega bomb and the biggest flop in gaming history.

I wouldnt count your chickens yet when it comes to COD. I remember everyone rejoicing to the 'death' of COD with Ghosts, then Infinite Warfare, then the MW3 mess.

 

[UltimaKilo]

But this isn't what is being said, yearly releases are still the plan just not the same genre/setting in back to back years

Ahh, thanks for the clarification. A mistake, I believe. The brand is becoming stale and watered down. It needs a couple of years break.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Ahh, thanks for the clarification. A mistake, I believe. The brand is becoming stale and watered down. It needs a couple of years break.

That I agree with you

 

[MDSLKTR]

It's time to carve out Warzone from the series, drop ps4 ports and invest in a new engine. They can afford it.

 

[Unknown?]

I wouldnt count your chickens yet when it comes to COD. I remember everyone rejoicing to the 'death' of COD with Ghosts, then Infinite Warfare, then the MW3 mess.

This is true, but they had better leadership then, now they have new management.

 

[Stuart360]

Thy need to evolve the games imo. I mean when i used to play COD MP back in the WAW and COD4 days, even then arena shooters were starting to feel dated and old hat.
now today with BR's being so popular, and the emergence of extraction shooters, COD needs to try something new imo. Halo has the same problem imo.

 

[Lillie]

so, call of duty GHOSTS 2?

 

[adamsapple]

so, call of duty GHOSTS 2?

Infinite Warfare 2

 

[Bridges]

Seems like most people here may be misinterpreting this. As others have said, the franchise is still annual. This just means we won't get Modern Warfare II to Modern Warfare III again, or Black Ops 6 to Black Ops 7. Other than those two instances, they have not been repeating settings in releases since CoD4: Modern Warfare. It was weird that they started doing this in the first place and they must have enough data now to show that players don't want the same type of CoD two years in a row.

Release black ops, then give it 2-3 years until the next one so people miss it. Meanwhile, feed them with Modern Warfare and potential other new ideas. It's a winning formula. I think the only reason they ever strayed was because they were trying to rush things out the door as releases that either weren't ready or were initially meant to be expansions

 

[adamsapple]

I agree with this but until this past year they have been making too much money to make many changes

BF6 slapped some sense into them this year

There won't be a new BF next year, they might actually have even more incentive to have another one out since it won't have any natural competition.

I think by next year they'll have the Switch 2 devkit issue mapped out too so we might see an NS2 SKU as well.

 

[Quantum253]

Except it's way more than "a few months". It's a whole year. The microtransactions keep flowing in no matter what. It's been working for them for like a decade now. They are only changing strategy because sales have finally cratered to a point they realize things need to change. We are still getting yearly COD releases though don't get it twisted.

I think the hard-core will be day one, but i was referring to casuals waiting for a sale, used purchased, etc. Then again, casuals might not be the target audience at this point. I miss the hype of a new COD being announced and the excitement of picking it up. Now, it seems like its flat and if someone (like me) takes a long time to prestige a couple times/get cool cameos, etc., it seems pointless if you only have a relatively short time frame to do so.
I picked up Blops 6 since its been several years since I played, and in no time 7 was here. I haven't played 6 for awhile, but I have a feeling its mostly dead or a complete sweat feast now. I'm totally fine with less COD over time for a better product

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I think the only reason they ever strayed was because they were trying to rush things out the door as releases that either weren't ready or were initially meant to be expansions

Nah players have been wanting a "year 2" of support for a long time, MWIII was their way of trying to doing that, that's why everything you bought for MWII carried forward to MWIII; they wanted to do the same for BO6 >7, but then people complained about the cartoon skins and they canceled carry forward completely, effectively killing the "year 2" purpose of it.

 

[Stuart360]

You know what would of been interesting to see, if BO7 had come BEFORE BF6 and Arc Raiders, and not after.
I could imagine the popularty of those 2 games put people off COD, atleast at launch anyway.
I still wouldnt be surprised this time next year, BO7 was still in the top 10, or even top 5 biggest selling games of the past year.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

This is equivalent to airballing a layup.

 

[Generic]

They should go further and make CoD biannual. Two dev teams would be enough (each game would take 4 years to develop). And cycle through past/present/future warfare for games.

 

[damidu]

a career moment for phil

 

[diffusionx]

Seems like most people here may be misinterpreting this. As others have said, the franchise is still annual. This just means we won't get Modern Warfare II to Modern Warfare III again, or Black Ops 6 to Black Ops 7. Other than those two instances, they have not been repeating settings in releases since CoD4: Modern Warfare. It was weird that they started doing this in the first place and they must have enough data now to show that players don't want the same type of CoD two years in a row.

Release black ops, then give it 2-3 years until the next one so people miss it. Meanwhile, feed them with Modern Warfare and potential other new ideas. It's a winning formula. I think the only reason they ever strayed was because they were trying to rush things out the door as releases that either weren't ready or were initially meant to be expansions

once people stop caring and move on, it's over

Black Ops is cringe and stupid now and people found other games. It's like Tony Hawk. It went from too big to fail to totally dead in like 3 years.

 

[Crew511A]

Finally. Fuck.

New engine
Destruction
Cut out the fucking cross gen bullshit
Focus on actual war, not gimmicks
Make it an actual mature game

Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. The last COD that had any semblance of being a mature game was COD4.

Not to say there hasn't been good games in the franchise since then, but if the first Modern Warfare was the Black Hawk Down of the franchise, the second was Commando or some cheesy Chuck Norris 80s flick.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Once Xbox got a hold of Call of Duty it was a wrap because the franchise was already on a small decline .... and the Xbox team was just going to speed up that decline with the game pass nonsense.