It looks like the reports that Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty game will be a glorified DLC for Modern Warfare 2 are true.
Over the past year, we’ve come across several leaks claiming the next Call of Duty game will be a “premium-priced” DLC for last year’s best-selling title that eventually became a standalone release. And, while this isn’t an unusual story – Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is cut from the same cloth – the issue here is the pricing and the amount of content it will have, or rather, the lack thereof.
Each new Call of Duty entry represents a fresh start for individual developers to put their stamp into their franchise. This is why the cyclical nature of the series has worked so far, and also why each studio has a separate fanbase among the larger Call of Duty community. Unfortunately, this new cycle that Activision Blizzard is attempting to start marks a turn for the worse, not for the better.
Leading up to the release of Modern Warfare 2 last year, it was rumored that Activision Blizzard had a two-year plan in the works to support the game before Treyarch takes its turn at the helm next year.
Many were actually fans of this strategy. This meant that Activision Blizzard would no longer force its studios to churn out one premium title every year, paving the way for longer development times for each game, which hopefully would result in better quality if not, at least, better consistency across each installment.
In light of the recent reports about the increasing costs of video game development – Sony reportedly invested over $500 million combined for The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West – no one would’ve blamed Activision Blizzard if it took the long-term route. Unfortunately, it appears that the allure of releasing a new premium-priced entry every year was too much for the company to resist.
DLCs very rarely sell for more than $40. So, by re-packaging the DLC as standalone content, telling consumers that it’s a “sequel” to Modern Warfare 2, and marketing it as such, Activision Blizzard stands to make at least twice or thrice more in revenue.
Activision Blizzard is used to backlash. It eats criticism for breakfast. It knows that the internet won’t like what it will do. But, the numbers speak for themselves. Its best-selling entries in recent years have been Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The entries in between both didn’t do too bad but they were lackluster commercially by the series’ standards. Activision Blizzard even went as far as to blame Call of Duty: Vanguard for its low revenue at the time of its release. If nothing else, the company is simply banking on what works, much to the behest of fans who know what they’re doing.
Unfortunately, Activision Blizzard’s bet, as greedy as it may seem, will pay off. Even if this year’s Call of Duty will just be an updated version of Modern Warfare 2 (because, technically, it should’ve been) with a slightly reworked UI, people will flock to the store shelves and buy it come November.
Already, Activision Blizzard is actively DMCA’ing content creators who share content from their upcoming Call of Duty title, despite being tight-lipped about its name, release date, and other details. Right around the same time, it’s kicking up the hype machine, asking fans whether or not “#MWII Operators, Weapons and Bundles” should carry over to “Call of Duty 2023.”
If this isn’t a confirmation that this year’s Call of Duty is Modern Warfare 3, we don’t know what is.
MODERN WARFARE III https://t.co/6oBsJLL1wB pic.twitter.com/Eh5GZHxI13
— bob. (@BobNetworkUK) July 17, 2023
Let's get this out of the way…
Should #MWII Operators, Weapons and Bundles carry forward into Call of Duty 2023?
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) July 17, 2023
At this point, the only way that Activision Blizzard will listen is if the sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will tank, which probably will never happen.
With Microsoft now set to own Activision Blizzard and Call of Duty legally guaranteed to be on both the current as well as upcoming PlayStation and Nintendo platforms for at least the next 10 years, the future is looking grim for hopefuls who’d like to see the franchise to stop short-changing its audience.
