Does Activision's survival rely too much on Call of Duty?

Activision is restructuring its company, putting less focus on Guitar Hero, cutting 500 staff, and yet pouring more resources into Call of Duty. But what happens if a Call of Duty game fails in the market?

[Warprincess116]

Duh. They not making any new ips. They cancelled true crime and they make a new call of duty game every year. You know what, i honestly think call of duty is gone to end up like guitar hero.

[Istanbull]

A company who opens a studio whose sole purpose is bring more DLC for CoD? Lol, I can't wait till the day people get tired of CoD.

[tehpees3]

I agree. They cancelled everything once they stopped getting a sizeable enough profit and now set up a studio to CoD dlc.

Time for something new. Or at least a break from some series. Show some originality for once.

[Perjoss]

"Does Activision's survival rely too much on Blizzard?"

I fixed the headline for you.

[Dno]

ahahah thanks you u beat me to it

[Enate]

Perjoss no, the title should just include both because without those two things they are nothing.

[lastdual]

Well, they do have one big new IP on the way thanks to the Bungie publishing deal.

Bungie is in a much better position though, since they maintain autonomy and can't be gutted at Activision's whim.

[theafroman]

yes simple as that

[kvg88]

wow, talk about a real case of putting all your eggs in one basket.

If they cancel Tony Hawk, Activision will pretty much have given EA a monopoly of both the skateboarding and music game genres.

[jimbone79]

LOL, funny you say that because the just did shut ol' Tony down too.

[f789790]

Good because they didn't know what they were doing. They kept messing with the formula and it just made the games crap. If I want realism, I'll buy Skate. I don't. I want to do a 900 into a volcano.

[Knightofelemia]

The author also forgot WOW

[Kon]

No, don't forget WoW

[cochise313]

Of course they do, every game they release has flopped.

[Kon]

Flopped? Not sales-wise.

[cochise313]

What game has sold this past year that wasn't COD? All their console games have flopped. Only reason Starcraft and WoW sells is because they have huge fanbases and not created by one of activisions sh!tty 2nd hand studios, not because of activision. They had 007, singularity, tony hawk, like 50 guitar heroes, dj hero, and COD this year,and only COD sold.

[jimbone79]

Spider-man sold too.

[labaronx]

which sucks because singularity was actually a fun game single player wise, i give it an 8 overall

[iceman06]

Singularity was great, DJ Hero was new and innovative and great, Bond was good for what it was...but not quite great. You would think that a company with 2 multi-billion dollar sellers could actually risk a bit to get some more competition in other franchises.

[gman_297]

There's only 2 things keeping Acti going and that's Blizzard (why, Blizzard, why??) and CoD. The latter is guaranteed to be a temporary thing by this point, though.

[NYC_Gamer]

blizzard likes to stack up money thats why.

[gman_297]

That they do, my friend. That. They. Do.

[DFresh]

Just like any business they go where the money is at.
(I'm sure any person in their shoes would do the same.)

However I'm against ripping off the consumer and not putting quality in those products/services created.

I'm sure many game developers envy Activision's wealth but they realize that making the gamers happy with their games are more important.

-__-

Edit:
Activision = Devil of the Gaming Industry.
(Not even EA was this bad.)

[seraphcaeli]

Activision: "Letting Blizzard do all the work since 2011."

[a08andan]

If COD fails, then they will simply have to create something original for once :)

[ProGrasTiNation]

Yes...yes it is....fuck kotick...taking money from kids is all hes good at

[Megaton]

A majority of their cash doesn't even come from CoD, or consoles in general, according to some Activision financial report from a year or two ago. Being merged with Blizzard, WoW is their bread and butter.

[gypsygib]

What?? Activision still makes other games besides COD?

[perdie]

EA has so many games coming out this year its not even funny. Like every preview of a game I want has EA in it lol

[Baka-akaB]

People forget that Milking an ip dry then ditching it , is an old habit at Activision .

When Cod dies , they'd probably already have a successor lined up

[Cajun Chicken]

Why do you think they bought Bungie?

[Baka-akaB]

they didnt buy bungie , but yeah

[jimbone79]

LOL, they didn't buy Bungie, they signed a contract to publish Bungie's games. There's a big diffrence.

[labaronx]

singularity (360,ps3 gamers should give a try) was really good, and so was shattered dimensions,hell even dj hero 2 but where was the advertising, oh yeah being blown own gimmicky, shawn white, tony hawk, and numerous guitar hero games. True Crime: HK actually showed promise but was canceled.... the house that call of duty built will not always be there.... as 2011 shows that it will be facing its stiffest competition ever:

Battlefeild 3 (especially after dissing the hardcore pc gamers)

Gears of War 3 (looks to be the best online experience of the series yet hardcore 360 gamers)

Resistance 3 (after seeing how radically improved the single player is multiplayer and coop will likely see a similar positive overhaul)

Rage (going to be a gorgeous looking game across the pc, 360, ps3)

Uncharted 3 (has a huge fan base and expect significant improvement to multiplayer)

Elder scrolls 5, mass effect 3, forza 4, twisted metal, assassins creed 3, are all possible for the end of the year......

will cod mw3 sell well, yes
will i buy it, likely
could we see a decline in sales for the series this year, i wouldnt doubt it

[artdafoo]

Nah, that's why they're currently have like 4 studios working on COD titles.

[Gamer_Z]

And we will see the end of Activision and Bobby Kotick

[Lamarthedancer]

Don't these guys have the rights to Crash Badicoot...if there focusing on COD all the time why not sell the rights back to NaughtyDog.

[AhnnQuirajj]

The last Crash I played was Twinsanity, which along with the Wrath of Cortex were the only good ones. Crash isn't a big name anymore since Naughty Dog wasn't the developer, in my opinion.

:(

Hope they do sell it to Naughty Dog, or don't make another game with Crash, at least.

[2fk]

YES they rely way to much on COD thats why they canned guitar heros....if they would concentrate on it and listen more to fans maybe COD would once again to be a gr8 FPS...so hey Activision STOP making COD every year

[2fk]

Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3 will destroy MW3...maybe not in sales but definitely on quality

[OrganicMachine]

yes.. and world of warcraft ..

remember. ActivisionBlizard.. #1 money maker atm is WOW #2 is COD.. #3 was Guitar Hero..