Should the Call of Duty franchise end?

Was thinking about this after reminiscing on the good days of MW2.

While I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, it's safe to say that the popular Call of Duty franchise has pumped out a great number of the games in the last decade. As such, while sales are still impressive, they are starting to dip compared to past games. Furthermore, with Call of Duty entering/being in futuristic settings, it's fair to ask whether or not Activision/Infinity Ward/Treyarch is running out of material?

Do you think that the Call of Duty franchise should end? This is the question I have. Let me know your thoughts and let's discuss.

I think they need to take a break. They overflooded the shooter market with the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over to the point that the FPS market is so high in concentration with that games that more than just mimic each other, they outright copy/paste each other with a different color scheme and visual appearance (And let's be honest, even that doesn't change that much). And now that CoD has become heavily micro-transaction based it's no longer the fun, competitive shooter it used to be. It's a CS:GO rehash for consoles. Activision brought this. Not Infinity Ward, not Sledgehammer, and most definitely not Treyarch. Call of Duty is Activision's and pretty much the FPS genre's flagship title. However, Battlefield finally took the throne this year for the genre with Battlefield 1.
This is a perfect time for them to look back and see where they went wrong. If they really looked at their sales enough to care, they would notice that after Ghosts, sales dramatically dropped. Hell, Ghosts itself didn't sell as well as Black Ops II did, which still holds the title as the second best selling CoD of all time, right behind Black Ops 1, which holds the title of the best selling Xbox 360 game ever, with over 12 million copies sold as of 2015.
This should be a good enough sign to them that it's time to take a break. When the release of your trailer for your newest game in the best selling video game franchise in the last decade becomes the second most disliked video on youtube within the first week of being uploaded (Holding the title of the fastest disliked video ever), something is wrong. When you lose the old players of the game and grab the attention of the younger children who access to their parents credit cards and run them like crazy, something is wrong. That is not what CoD is supposed to be. They can say that those kids shouldn't be playing the game because it's rated M, but who in gods name actually reads those things. Technically someone under 17 isn't supposed to be able to buy rated M games, and anyone under 13 isn't supposed to be able to buy rated T games, but in reality in a 9 year old can walk in and buy GTAV or MKX (Considered the most violent games ever mass-produced), walk home, and play them. Now I don't personally think it's a bad thing, but it removes one of the only defenses that Activision could have to defend their decision making in the series.

I don't think the three developers are the issue, either. All three are very well rounded developers in their own respect, but when you throw big daddy Activision in the mix, you get your games ruined. Look at Destiny, for example. One of the highest potential games EVER, ruined because Activision shoved their greedy noses into it and forced Bungie to release DLC when they didn't want to yet. They forced them to make micro-transactions (Thank god they weren't p2w items and were purely cosmetic, but the fact that paying is the ONLY way to get some of the best looking things in the game is messed up in my opinion). If Bungie had been left alone with this project and not been forced on deadlines and required to bow to King Activision, Destiny would have been an amazing game (Personally, I still love it for what it is. I think it's a respectable attempt under the fire of Activision).
If they just take a break, learn from their mistakes, and come back with a large, unified attempt at a Call of Duty game and stop the yearly releases, they could make a come back. As for now though, Call of Duty is dead. Infinite Warfare may be labeled a CoD game, but it isn't. Neither is Black Ops 3 or Advanced Warfare. Black Ops 3 wasn't awful, though. It was respectable, but it wasn't Call of Duty. Ghosts was the last true CoD game, and Black Ops II was the last good CoD game (In my opinion).

I'll have a definite answer for you in a few months, once they announce the next game in the series.

When it comes to the Call of Duty series, I always felt that is should have ended after Modern Warfare 3. This is because to me, it did not look like that the series would ever go back to being set back during World War II ever again. In my opinion, the only good games in the Call of Duty series were the ones set during World War II and the Modern Warfare trilogy.

If i remember my CoD charts correctly or at least how it got into the mainstream..

CoD4 = was the game that a LOT of people started with. Myself included since I never played the Multiplayer of CoD1, 2, heck 3 if I remember was a console exclusive. Feel free to correct me on CoD3.

The sales were at the peak during MW2 and MW3 where it looked like CoD was the unstoppable sales juggernaut, and sent the FPS market into this realm where it was all MEELEETERY SOLDIER SHOOTERS that we all like to make fun out of.

To cut to the chase, a definite break from producing titles is needed. I've said this in numerous outlets (even in the CoD Forums i used to visit) that ACTIVISION needs to just go with supporting the games they have released with content (DLC, free patches, zombies, etc) instead of releasing a "copy n paste" every single year. The fact that they frequently released games to keep up their cash cow's sales instead of doing something to support any of their currently released games gives me the impression that Activision sees CoD as a "Disposable" title. Once their current CoD game has peaked, give and take a year or so, they proceed to dump resources in making their next C&P instead of making post launch support like extra content.

Here's the thing. I've said this before in VG Daily chat. Given how HACKTIVISION has treated Modern Warfare Remastered with putting the ever cancerous supply drops and COD POINTS in a 9 year old game, the positive that I do see is that they plan to at least make MWR a game that will last a couple of years since after all, MWR being held hostage under Infinite Wewfare, gave people a reason to buy a legacy edition of said title, just for the game that they want to play. That's just my take. a 9 year old game getting the post-launch support that its 9 year old incarnation needed years ago? Hell maybe that's a probable sign that maybe, JUST MAYBE, some changes are now heading to how DaddyMESPAI Activision will be treating AT LEAST one game for this year and era.

Also, there are rumors floating around that the "BEST COD Game" (the Chinese Only CoD Online) might get a global release pretty soon. and yes, COD ONLINE is the best CoD game that no one can't ever play unless they are a Chinese citizen living in China, or have found ways to play said game in the convenience of their own homes.

It's like they making the cofffee with good decorations but tasteless, well to me if the franchise is put into an end that would be good and bad.

Good for seeing other shooter games to rise up for more exciting adventures, bad for some companies who wants to make money.

I play the campaigns and IW has a good storyline imo, but I think Activision should give COD a break.

It makes money, why should it end?

And I don't mean that in the corporate sense. There's demand from the franchise and, if you look at the last few entries, it's definitely trying a lot more than the void of rehashes known as 2009-2014. Should the companies developing it branch out? Absolutely. But end the series as a whole? I don't really see much point unless they just don't want to continue with it.

Even though sales have fallen, COD is a serious money maker for Activision so I don't see it ending anytime soon, even if the games do get worse and worse every year...

It's shocking to me that Infinite Warfare still has no leaderboards or combat record. They really did put the bare minimum of effort into the MP side this time around.

CoD has lost quite a lot of ground this year with Battlefield 1 proving to be wildly successful and Titanfall starting to see mainstream success with their latest release with added SP and PS support, not to mention the initial reception was awful as well with the trailer being one of the most downvoted videos on YT.

The series desperately needs a break and Activision needs to come out with fresh ideas if they want to keep CoD relevant, because competition is ever increasing and they're no longer at the top of the FPS market.

From what I have seen, it seems that players want to return to the COD without hyper futuristic ambience and aesthetic or micro-transactions. From what I've seen, the zombies has gotten weird and wayyyyy too magic-heavy relative to previous zombie maps. However, I haven't played any COD game since BO2, which I still play on occasion. Its probably my most played game ever.

And yes, no leaderboards and combat record in IW yet MWR has them. Infinity Ward pls. But then you have MWR having screwed up spawns and lack of collaterals, Raven Software pls. Many people, myself included aren't scoring the collaterals that we all did back in the day.


Seriously. You can't do s*** like this in MWR because Raven Software has yet to fully address this. They refuse to do so thinking that they got it right.

I still stand by my previous comment that Activision should have at least skipped a year for CoD and just support the crap out of IW and MWR. The fact that they released 2 games AT ONCE already gave a divide to the community around it. You got people who only care for IW since they think that CoD4MWR is too slow paced, campy, and is simply a 9 year old game that has seen its days, while you got the party that solely cares for CoD4MWR since they don't want to play IW, want boots on the ground, want a callback to the good ole days. The best they could do is to just take care of these two communities. Hell Black Ops 3 is getting some post launch support still up to this day in the form of new drops but at least BLOPS3 was a game that people, myself included, liked, and people who grew burnt out of both IW & MWR are going back to BLOPS3.

Its funny how the CoD fanbase is now trying to put their hopes up for Sledgehammer to make a game that people will enjoy. They want Boots on the Ground, none of that Boost jumping and advanced movement, and LAYZOR BEEEMS.

Considering that Sledgehammer's making this year's game, I'm only hoping that at least its Boots on da Ground. I mean this is the same studio that made Advanced Warfare, which was an attempt to differentiate the series and take it into the next level, which for better for worse, worked, being the blueprint to BLOPS3 and of course IW.

Oh boy do I have plenty to say on this, but it will have to wait till I have a good chunk of time off.

In short, expect to hear something from me soon!

A lot of AAA companies could use with taking a break, or rather, taking more time with their releases. Their titles sell so much that they'll live if they don't shit something out every single year.

Thinking about it more last night, we are possibly set for the rotation to be...

Past/Present game by Sledgehammer.
Black Ops/near future game by Treyarch.
Space warfare game by Infinity Ward.

I truly think, based upon how well the campaign for Infinite Warfare was received, that we will see, at least, an Infinite Warfare 2.
Spoiler for the Infinite Warfare campaign ending:

Absolutely, the decline in quality from MW3, which was already kinda crap, to Infinite Warfare is absolutely staggering.

I'll tell you what should end; Infinity Ward making games in this series. Did you folks see the recent update where they added 600+ supply drop items? And most of the camos they added were copy and paste emblems/calling cards. r/infinitewarfare is full of images of the terrible camos.

Advanced warfare was fun, but they ruined the 'futuristic theme' and hype when they made black ops 3 and infinite warfare. But I think that they already had an idea that the game wouldn't be a succes so they released a remastered version of cod4 which is pretty popular imo. Infinite warfare was just meant to gather more money, a game made with a completely commercial goal. They should go old school and look at our history for new ideas, not fictional futuristic crap.