As Modern Warfare 4 starts to repair the damage done by Black Ops 7, a reader explains why he thinks Call Of Duty will never truly die.
I’ve noticed that there are many game franchises that have been celebrating their 30th and 40th anniversaries recently. Gaming used to be thought of as a new thing but we’re at the point where it’s been mainstream for over 50 years and it’s now impossible to imagine the world without them.
Even so, franchises come and go and nothing lasts forever, as we’ve seen with the decline of everything from Gears Of War to Final Fantasy. After last year, most people would’ve added Call of Duty to that list, even though it’s only 23 years old.
In my opinion, it’s been downhill since at least Modern Warfare 3, but really as far back as Vanguard in 2021. But Black Ops 7 was so bad that people were really starting to say that maybe this was it and Call Of Duty is dead, or at least dying. But that’s never going to happen.
I say this as a medium to casual fan of Call Of Duty. I played it the most on Xbox 360, and have very fond memories of it because of that, but I’m not blind to the mistakes since the PlayStation 4 era began and how the quality of each yearly episode has become more variable.
What surprises me though is that we’ve never had any attempt to try and create a rival. Battlefield is often said to be it, but it’s a very different game (and came out first). It’s a rival in that it’s the next biggest military sim, but it’s a lot more serious, a lot more open world, and vehicles are central to it. That’s not Call Of Duty at all.
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Call Of Duty is about close quarters combat and not taking itself too seriously. It’s not a simulation and while some entries or more realistic than others that’s never the selling point. The selling point is that it’s the game of soldiers you used to play as a kid in the playground, no more and no less.
People are always going to want that and while no other game is around to rival it, Call Of Duty is that game. Even when it loses players, like it did with Black Ops 7, it’s still so massive it’d take multiple flops for it to be in real trouble.
But it’s not, because everyone seems to think Modern Warfare 4 is actually pretty good. I’ve only played a bit so far, but I can certainly tell you it’s better than Black Ops 7. Now, for another franchise that might not be enough, or the damage might already be done, but almost instantly nobody is talking Call Of Duty down anymore and it’s popular again.
People want Call Of Duty to be good. As trendy as it might be to criticise it, that doesn’t stop anyone from playing it at all the same. No one needs to play as a cyborg space marine or a demon-busting zombie guy, but everyone (within reason) wants to play soldiers, at least from time to time.
Call Of Duty fills a fundamental need in terms of video games. It’s no wonder that that the only game that’s guaranteed to sell as well is EA Sports FC, because people want a football game. About the only thing I’d say is similar is driving simulators.
Other games become popular because people play them and decide they like them, with Call Of Duty they already want what it’s selling before they start, and it has to be really bad for even a small percentage of them to be put off. But they’ll be back, they always come back.
By reader Shafer
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