‘COD: Ghosts’ Reviews, Sales May Lose Activision Their License
The COD: Ghosts reviews and sales are at their lowest point in years, and it may cost Activision their license to the series.
Even though Call of Duty: Ghosts is considered a success commercially, it is only proof that gamers will buy anything with the Call of Duty name and gameplay attached. Though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the gamers and reviewers noticed a definite lack of anything substantially new. The reviews are at their lowest point in years, and many decisions behind the scenes in the media industry are based on Metacritic scores.
When the game series launched, the sales were moderate to say the least. For the first game in a series, just turning a profit can be enough to warrant a sequel.
Call of Duty is now seven years old, with a yearly installment which should have been at its best this year with next gen consoles available to make us marvel at its novelty. The problem is that the novelties were few and far between, and seemed thrown in just to sell the game.
The follow-up to Call of Duty 4, World at War, was the worst-selling game in the series. But after that, the next Call of Duty improved dramatically, leading it to become the top-selling shooter franchise.
COD: Ghosts‘ reviews are the worst ever in the series, with sales possibly dipping below the standard set with Modern Warfare 2. It isn’t possible to know what the sales will be like this year, but it’s not looking good.
For the series’ debut on next gen consoles, Activision seriously dropped the ball this time. Gamers didn’t like the changes as much, and the reviews reflected that fact. The series has fallen steadily since its peak with Modern Warfare 3, partly because gamers are getting tired of playing the same game over and over with next to no serious changes.
A possible reason behind Activision’s inability to wow us with Call of Duty: Ghosts is that not only were they pushing for a new game every year, but they also had the expectations raised by the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If they don’t lose their license for the Call of Duty franchise, they may need to slow it down to two or three years between releases to give it more polish or actual updates.
With the unfortunately low review scores, COD: Ghosts may need to step aside for Battlefield 4 this time, and someone else may have to step in with a reboot to revive the franchise. The gamers aren’t impressed any more.
