Did Call of Duty commit suicide?

[Meelis13]

According to steamcharts, Infinite Warfare, latest call of duty game, has about 15k player peak & playercount is already falling rapidly. Meanwhile MW remastered has about 6000 players peak. Yes, im talking about steam-only here (because lets face it: who buys it in windows store?). I havent been able to find good numbers regarding to consoles, but the player drop is felt there as well from what i hear.

And since games usually get their best playercounts within days of release, its quite safe to say it has failed. I mean last call of duty game with less peak count according to steamcharts (which counts data from july 2012) is Black Ops 1 (and not losing by much btw). And it was 2 years old game before steamcharts started looking into data, meaning well past its prime.

 

So it raises the question: is this the end of Call of duty? I think probably not, but its very tough mountain to climb again, since they need to restore trust in game series.

 

But what do you think? is this the end of Call of Duty? will they change anything in their business model? Will they try to pull Battlefield & return to the past? What can they even do at this point to save the franchise?

[AP_Pastor]

More like a low point in the series. Unless they play their cards right, the series could drop even lower. Just my two cents.

[Templar Knight]

For PC, definitely unless they learn from their mistake immediately. Whoever the fuck had the bright idea to completely split the online PC gaming communities based on where they bought the product was crazy. 15k peak for day 2 release (AngryJoe tuned me into that) for ANY AAA release to me, especially one as big as COD, to me is just insane.

 

As for general stuff, I think they should ideally start to change up Multiplayer in different ways like adding stuff they use in single-player to keep the game fresh, otherwise COD is just going to slowly decline into mediocrity, maybe even faster than it already is.

[Alyxx Thorne]

The main reason is that the player base on PC has been split between Steam and Windows App store. Any copies bought on the Windows App Store are separate from the Steam player base so an already minor community is being split in two.

 

So far I haven't had huge problems finding people to play with so I think the whole issue HAS been blown WAY out of proportions a fair bit and I don't think it's anything near a so-called "suicide". People just like talking about CoD like it's failing because it's so cool to hate on it I guess.

[Meelis13]

The main reason is that the player base on PC has been split between Steam and Windows App store. Any copies bought on the Windows App Store are separate from the Steam player base so an already minor community is being split in two.

 

So far I haven't had huge problems finding people to play with so I think the whole issue HAS been blown WAY out of proportions a fair bit and I don't think it's anything near a so-called "suicide". People just like talking about CoD like it's failing because it's so cool to hate on it I guess.

sure, because half the people buy & play on windows store? Not really. Considering Windows store quality, i wouldnt be too suprised to see less than 1000 players there. Steam definetly has large majority (at least 85 percent) of players windows store has.

And issue is there. Now, before i go on- i loved call of duty, in fact rather recently even. I loved black ops 2, found ghosts (bought with very steep discount) to be.. ok as well. But it seems that many people are like me & they hate direction CoD has taken.

Its even more evident when looking at steamcharts data. Keep in mind, that games are usually at their peak playercount in few days after release. And in IW, its already dropping (today's max- 10 000- already 1/3rd gone).

 

Now, bit of comparison with previous call of duty release playercount peaks (from steamcharts):

 

Black ops 3- peak 63 381 (day 1, SP & MP combined)

Advanced Warfare- 35 017 (MP)+ 12 649 (SP) (both day 1)

Ghosts- 36 922 (MP)+ 12 575 (SP) (day 1)

Black ops 2- 18 202 (SP)+ 9628 (zombies)+ 70 819 (MP) (day 1 for SP & zombies, month later for MP, but even at day 1 it had 63k players)

Modern Warfare 3- 55 900 (MP)+ 6504 (SP) (NB! game was released about 8 months BEFORE steamcharts data was available, meaning it was well past its prime)

Black ops- 7352 (MP)+3245 (SP). And consider that this steamcharts data starts 2 years AFTER game was released (july 2012), which is case for CoD-s before that date.

Modern Warfare 2 (since july 2012, 3 years after release)- 11 422 (MP)+ 2231 (SP)

 

I think stats are pretty clear here. Not only its the worst launch of cod by far, it almost gets overtaken by games that were years old at time steamcharts became monitoring their playercounts.

Furthermore, it seems people really, really dislike futuristic direction. While Black ops 3 has decent playercount (3,4k), advanced warfare only has ~200 people (and no, i didnt forget a 0. Thats two hundred for 2 year old game) on SP & MP combined. Now, lets take MW3 multiplayer- 900 people online at moment (and game is 5 years old). Even Ghosts multiplayer has currently 240 people (MORE than AW MP & SP combined & its year older than AW). Modern Warfare 1 (9 years old game if im not wrong- and no, not remaster) has 325 people online. World at war (last ww2 game in cod series so far, i think 8 years old) has 1500 people online. MW2 mp- 1201 people. It shows even most loyal fans are starting to simply get enough of this

Considering how MP-focused call of duty really is, that is really evident that CoD is simply stagnating or even getting worse.

So no, issue isnt blown out of proportion, because quite effectively we are seeing death strokes of legendary gaming franchise. Right now activision has real chance to revive the series, but they'd have to change their whole approach and i doubt they are ready for it. This right now should be obvious warning, but if they keep it up, thats the end.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Personally I love the direction as I am a huge sci-fi/cyberpunk geek and seeing CoD go in that direction was like they somehow listened to what I wanted. So I am happy at least.

 

And like I said, haven't had any huge problems finding people to play with so far so I'm not sure if I'd personally spell the game as a complete disaster in terms of playerbase just yet...

 

I mean, I will agree that it is the worst launch so far, but it's not as bad as you make it seem in my opinion, at least not in my country.

[Meelis13]

True, you definetly wont be having problems finding match now, but game is just 3 days old. Give it a month.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm not as pessimistic, I'd hopefully love to prove you wrong in a month's time.

[Psychotic Ninja]

IMO, they just shot themselves in the foot. Eventually they'll recover (Fine Bros did). COD will still have its sheep. Now, before anyone attacks me on that comment, do note, we all are sheep to something. I'm a sheep to Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. A concerned sheep, but still a sheep. Plus, as soon as the next big company screws up, and shoots themselves in the foot, we'll all forget about COD shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, how much longer before the majority of us forget all about Digital Homicide?

[Meelis13]

IMO, they just shot themselves in the foot. Eventually they'll recover (Fine Bros did). COD will still have its sheep. Now, before anyone attacks me on that comment, do note, we all are sheep to something. I'm a sheep to Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. A concerned sheep, but still a sheep. Plus, as soon as the next big company screws up, and shoots themselves in the foot, we'll all forget about COD shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, how much longer before the majority of us forget all about Digital Homicide?

Mate, digital homocide is too funny to forget

[Alyxx Thorne]

IMO, they just shot themselves in the foot. Eventually they'll recover (Fine Bros did). COD will still have its sheep. Now, before anyone attacks me on that comment, do note, we all are sheep to something. I'm a sheep to Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. A concerned sheep, but still a sheep. Plus, as soon as the next big company screws up, and shoots themselves in the foot, we'll all forget about COD shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, how much longer before the majority of us forget all about Digital Homicide?

I prefer the term fan but sure

[Psychotic Ninja]

You say tomato I say solid ketchup

[Meelis13]

sorry alyxx, i know you like the game but i find it too funny.

Been watching its playercounts since launch, currently sitting at 1/3rd of launch numbers (about 5000 daily peak). Apparently they deemed it to be big enough alarm bell to try sell it 33 percent off. As far as CoD goes, that is actually big deal, because usually newest addition is never on sale on autumn one (or winter one) or at least is 10 percent off or so.

and i could tell it was on sale trough numbers- playerbase actually grew 100 players.

[Alyxx Thorne]

And that's a bad thing?

[Meelis13]

maybe not from consumer standpoint, but from dev standpoint its very bad

[Alyxx Thorne]

You said the playerbase grew. I don't see the negative.

[Meelis13]

i said compared to what it was before sale. But it turned out to be regular weekend spike as current 24h peak is 4800 & minimum 1300. thats low. Game is barely a month old- for comparison, even advanced warfare (that now has 100 players left, least of all CoD-s) took over a year to get to that point