Let’s go back to the year 2005. That autumn, RedOctane released a game called Guitar Hero. It was pretty successful, so it spawned a sequel, Guitar Hero II. That came out on the fall of 2006. One year later, Rock Band first popped up. Then, in the span of around two years, video game publishers lost their minds, and published approximaely 800 music rhythm games. Now you have a situation where not even The Beatles can make Rock Band big again. The lesson: don’t saturate the market with same-y games too suddenly. With that in mind, laugh: Activision has created a “dedicated [Call of Duty] business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world.” “Brand initiatives,” folks. Get ready for, like, 900 new Call of Duty games in the next few years!
Is Activision crazy like a fox or merely crazy? I’d suggest the latter, but let’s look at the facts:
• Activision likes to make money, and lots of it
• The last Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2, sold a zillion copies
So you understand Activision’s thinking here: hey, this series is popular, so let’s keep giving people what they want.
The thing is, do you want a Call of Duty MMO? Because that looks like it’s going to happen. What about Call of Duty 24: Filling Out Enlistment Papers? You really can only play these games so many times before it’s like, you know what, I’m tired of holding down R1 to shoot people.
We need to take bets: how long until people are burned out on Call of Duty? I’ll give them one more game of really good sales, then it drops off from there. And then Activision will have to find another cash cow to milk dry. Not that I have any special affinity for Call of Duty, but it’s just hilarious to see Activision blow through yet another franchise so quickly.