Summary
Activision has already planned out the next four years' worth ofCall of Dutygames, a senior company official has revealed. This bit of insight into one ofthe best-selling video game franchises of all timeswas shared as part of a much wider reflection on the series' past, present, and future.
BetweenModern Warfare 2breaking one franchise record after anotherandCall of Duty: Mobilecontinuing to dominate download charts on smartphones and tablets four years into its release, Activision’s long-running series currently appears to be stronger than ever. The gaming giant nowadays even holds a sizable slice of the immensely lucrative battle royale market, which it seized following the 2020 launch ofCall of Duty: Warzone.
As for what’s next for the franchise, Activision President Rob Kostich revealed that the publisher already mapped out all futureCall of Dutygamesup through 2027. “We’re constantly in our planning phase,” the executive said in recent interview with VentureBeat. Elaborating on that point, Kostich explained how Activision is consistently communicating with a “massive focus group,” on top of listening to player feedback, in order to decide where to take the franchise next.
The official acknowledged that this approach hasn’t always been “perfect,” but insisted that it still served the company well, allowingCall of Dutygames to meet or surpass expectations “more often than not.” Among many other things, that strategy also informed the originalModern Warfare 2, which Kostich highlighted as one of the most defining moments in the series' history. The 2009 game launchedCall of Dutyinto a “different stratosphere” of popularity and overall industry impact, he recalled.
Thinking back on some other such historic moments, Kostich pointed toWarzoneas another massive win for the franchise, not least because takingCall of Dutyfree-to-play wasn’t an easy decision. That’s largely because Activision achieved tremendous success with its annual release model dating back to the late ’90s and theTony Hawkdays, so putting out a big-budget freemium game came with the risk of cannibalizing its existing sales. However, the publisher found thatWarzoneactually boosted the sales of the mainline installments to unprecedented heights, as most recently underlined byCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s record-breaking launch.
Moving forward, Activision intends to continue exploring a mixture of eras inCall of Dutygames, alternating between different settings on a regular basis so as to keep things interesting, Kostich revealed. The Activision President also dismissed the risks of franchise exhaustion that come with the company’s yearly release model, describing them as a non-issue for as long as the publisher keeps meeting theCall of Dutyfandom’s expectations.
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