The first person shooter genre has been a genre mostly dominated by Call of Duty. Each year, the latest Call of Duty installment is the top selling video game (unless there is a GTA game being released, all hail king Rockstar). Black-Ops III and Advanced Warfare before it were both the best selling video games of their respective release years. So, why would this year’s offering from Activision and Infinity Ward be any different? Well, because there is a big, bad game based around World War 1 coming from the company’s biggest competitor.
EA and DICE revealed Battlefield 1 this past Friday, and the game has been met with overwhelming praise from fans. The video shown at the presentation has already surpassed 20 million views and 1 million likes on YouTube in just 3 short days. The hype train exploded and transformed into a rocket ship when this game was revealed.
Meanwhile, the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare trailer that was revealed one week ago today has amassed only 14 million views and, brace yourselves, 1.3 million dislikes on YouTube. 1.3 million, that is a small country of angry Call of Duty fans letting Infinity Ward and Activision know that they are not on board with their choice for the path of the next Call of Duty. On top of all of this, guess how many likes that same Infinite Warfare trailer has? 267k, how about that for a poor ratio of likes to dislikes? Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is reaching Justin Bieber level hate on YouTube and that is saying something.
What does it all mean?
Well, it could mean absolutely nothing and fans will still buy Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Maybe they will take it a step further and buy the $80 Legacy Edition of the game, just to get their hands on the remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. All of that hate on YouTube, just to make Call of Duty the best selling video game title of 2016, another year of success for the fps powerhouse.
Or…
It could be the beginning of the end for Call of Duty. It could be the end of Infinity Ward as we know it because they can’t make a good game anymore. This might cripple Activision for all we know, and DICE might look to take the kill shot on their competitive company.
Ok, maybe it won’t be that bad. Maybe this will actually be a wake up call for Call of Duty. If Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare gets butchered by Battlefield 1 in sales, further proving that fans want no part of future warfare, then it can be a good thing for Activision. It could possibly allow them to realize that fans don’t want what they are offering. This widespread response of negativity towards their new game cannot just be glossed over. We can only hope Treyarch is taking notes of this whole event and won’t be making the same mistakes.
Fans are pissed off, and they will let the big suits at Activision know about. Battlefield made the sexy acquisition for their team and they made the “big move” so to speak. Call of Duty just stood pat and figured, “well we already are the best in the business, why change?” Unfortunately for Activision and the Call of Duty franchise, that isn’t the way the video game industry works. Adapt or die, isn’t that how the saying goes? Call of Duty thought it was adapting when all it was ever really doing was becoming stale.
Battlefield has found a way to become fresh and generate excitement. So much so, that it will have a legitimate chance to dethrone Call of Duty as the best selling video game of the year. I will take it a step further and predict right now that Battlefield 1 will outsell Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare even with the packaging of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. People can come back and comment in November about whether I was right or wrong, at least they have passion. However, I view this as the year Call of Duty takes a huge punch to the gut. Hopefully, while catching their breath, they will realize where they went wrong.
Published: May 9, 2016 10:31 am