Call of Duty’s dominance is killing innovation in the industry

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   November 24th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Part 1: While Black Ops 2 is looking to break the record for fastest-selling entertainment product and it may be great news for the publisher, Activision, it may not be the best thing for those looking for a new experience.

So Call of Duty: Black Ops is out and managed to sell 1-million copies through retailer, GameStop, alone. Analysts are estimating the game sold over 6-million units worldwide overall on its launch night, which means that the game earned more revenue in a night than Ubisoft’s record best-selling title to date, Assassin’s Creed 3, managed in a week.

Halo 4 remains the biggest entertainment product launch to date, but as the figures for Black Ops 2 are tallied up one can expect Master Chief’s return to the gaming world to be eclipsed in little to no time. This is great news for Activision, the publisher which owns the rights to both Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare and Treyarch’s entries in the Call of Duty series as well.

The publisher has dominated the sales charts over the past five years with Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2 and World at War breaking launch day and best-selling title records year on year. Many now agree that the only game that can give the first-person shooter series a run for its money is Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto games but with GTA V scheduled for release next year, one can expect Black Ops 2 to rack up plenty of sales.

One could say that it is great for the industry that is still growing and expanding into new grounds simultaneously and there is no doubting that, however, at the same time, it is slowly killing innovation in the medium as well.

Every game seems to want to emulate the Call of Duty series, which is fair and understandable, who wouldn’t want a game that makes over a billion dollars in less than a month’s time, however, it is how so many of these publishers and developers are pursuing this goal that is a matter of great concern.

Studios seem to be trying to be focusing on copying elements from the Call of Duty games and adhere to the game’s formula instead of innovating, taking risks and providing new experiences. There are only a handful of studios that are actually experimenting and trying to bring fresh, new and exciting experiences but they are usually left behind on the sales front when they go up against the phenomenon that is Call of Duty.

To find out how every studio is feeling the effects of Activision’s series, read on here.

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Wishfree.com in any way.