Putting the ‘Has Call of Duty Peaked’ Debate in the Proper Context

UM writes: Earlier this month Games Industry featured a piece outlining the possibility that the Call of Duty franchise had reached its peak. Since then this prediction has been echoed all over the internet on blogs and other mediums, with most agreeing the biggest culprit is player apathy in a “tired genre.” The best representation of this was in a Gamasutra piece yesterday which shows Modern Warfare 3 US sales failing to match Black Ops sales by almost 3 million.

While the series may have peaked, one graph with only three data points, outlining “poor” sales doesn’t quite do it for me. There are many factors, some the developers have no control over, which can influence the success or lack of success in a title. While it’s easy to chalk-up MW3’s poor performance compared to Black Ops as player boredom, I don’t think it’s that simple. If anything the formula of giving people more of the same has been successful for years, how come all of a sudden users are bored? I don’t buy it.

[matgrowcott]

Great article, if only for trying to put a different spin on what people are already taking as fact.

My take on it? Anybody who thinks 13-14 million copies sold is anything but a complete success - no matter what previous sales have been - is kidding themselves and are looking for problems where there aren't any. The sales for Call of Duty could only rise so high before they hit the limit of people interested/people who like the series enough to buy it at launch.

It'll be interesting to see where Black Ops II falls to say the least.

[KillerBBs]

Sales never reflect good game play but popularity.

[matgrowcott]

Handy that the vast majority of people who buy into the series enjoy it then, huh?

[iamnsuperman]

Good article. BF sales obviously impacted MW3 sales but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. The game is still selling a ton of units and obviously successful.

[The Meerkat]

Halo 4 will do the same this year.
After the MP showing this week i've decided i'll get COD too. But many people will only get one.

[hennessey86]

I was never
going to continually outsell the previous game forever, it has peaked in terms of sales I would say