Activision has announced a change to the way Call of Duty releases will work in the future, and if you haven’t been a fan of the franchise alternating between Modern Warfare and Black Ops recently, you’re in luck.
In a blog post on the official Call of Duty website, Activision acknowledges that “for some” Call of Duty fans, “the franchise has not met [their] expectations fully”, and that it’s “one thing” for the studio to say it’s proud of the recent Black Ops 7, but “it’s up to [fans]” to judge the game for themselves.
To address disappointment and negative feedback surrounding Black Ops 7, Activision says it will no longer “do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games” in an attempt to “ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year”.
To clarify, this doesn’t seem to mean you won’t get a Modern Warfare game one year and then a Black Ops game the next; rather, it looks like it means successive years won’t see the same sub-franchise launching, so there won’t be two Black Ops or Modern Warfare games in a row.
Activision also says that in the future, it intends to “drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental” when it comes to Call of Duty, and that while it has no more information to share about what that might mean right now, it will share more “when the time is right”.
If you’ve yet to try Black Ops 7 (and sales data suggests you’re far from alone if you haven’t played it yet), Activision is holding a free weekend for the shooter next week, so you can jump in and try its multiplayer and Zombies game modes for free.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched back in mid-November, and despite its predecessor apparently enjoying the franchise’s biggest ever launch, it looks like the game hasn’t exactly been a smash hit for Activision.
Indeed, it looks as though EA’s Battlefield 6 has significantly outperformed its rival, at least in terms of initial sales, which is probably why Activision is scrambling to figure out what’s gone wrong.
Whether or not this results in any real change in terms of what’s next for Call of Duty remains to be seen, but there’s clearly still enough faith in the franchise at Activision HQ to move ahead with a Paramount-led movie adaptation. Stay tuned for more.
