Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Features

Activision’s CEO discusses the future of Call of Duty

John Gaudiosi
By

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Launch Party - ShowEric Hirshberg has been at the helm of Activision Publishing since 2010, ever since stepping into the video game business from the advertising world. Hirshberg has overseen what has become an annual $1 billion launch of a new Call of Duty game every year, a streak which began when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reached that milestone in 2009, and the franchise hasn’t slowed down since. He’s also watched as Skylanders captivated both the toy industry and gaming world with dozens of action figures and a pair of hit games (with a third on the way). And now with the first details of Bungie’s Destiny now revealed, Hirshberg took some time to address some key issues that Activision and the game industry will be facing in 2013 and beyond as the next generation of consoles are just around the corner.

call-of-duty-logoAs each new Call of Duty Game has a longer life thanks to DLC and multiplayer, what are the challenges of keeping Call of Duty from oversaturating the market with annual Call of Duty releases?

Recommended Videos

So far I think we’ve found a very nice cadence with our Call of Duty community and the demand and the supply of new content is in a pretty good balance. The games have gotten increasingly long tails and people have shown a year-round appetite to keep playing multiplayer and for the new content that we release with DLC packs to enhance those experiences.

Related

We’ve been able to have success with new games as long as they have big new innovations that have a big appeal to our fans. We’ve found the right cadence.

How involved is Activision in the making of the Call of Duty games and their direction verses the individual developers and what they want to do?

All of our developers who work on Call of Duty are part of the Activision family. Our developer community represents our largest employee population at Activision, so I don’t really see the distinction when you say how much has Activision been involved. We certainly have a great track record of giving our developers tremendous amounts of creative freedom to make the games they want to make.

“When you have the kind of successes that we’ve had with some of the other franchises it does free up your ability to invest behind something new that you really believe in.”

That said, when you have a franchise like Call of Duty, which has multiple developers on it, a lot of the stewardship is a brand. It becomes centralized and there are people who have been living with the brand and been part of creating the brand from the very beginning. There’s a lot of cross-pollination between people who work at a developer like Mark Lamia, who’s the head of Treyarch. He started in our production management group at Activision. And our current head of worldwide studios is a former head of Treyarch, so there’s a lot of musical chairs in terms of the talent that contributes to our games and it’s a very good, healthy creative collaboration.

Skylanders Giants Pop Fizz Toy on PortalWhat is the next step for Skylanders now that it has surpassed the $1 billion mark?

Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. Skylanders was built on delivering magic moments to young gamers and we think that our job is to deliver those content active moments with each new iteration. As long as we keep adding new ideas to keep it fresh, I think we’ll continue to be successful. Obviously, a billion dollars in revenue threshold is a wonderful milestone. We really feel like what we’re trying to do with Skylanders is build a meaningful and lasting franchise that will stand the test of time. The key to that is continued innovation and continued magic.

What freedom does having hits franchises like Call of Duty and Skylanders open up to Activision when it comes to taking risks on original IPs?

Activision is a very rigorous company and puts a lot of analysis and thought into the things that we venture into. Our strategy is to be very focused on doing a few things exceptionally well. We make those choices very carefully. That said, when you have the kind of successes that we’ve had with some of the other franchises it does free up your ability to invest behind something new that you really believe in.

If you look at Skylanders as an example of a success story, getting into the toy manufacturing business you’re going to have the technology of how to bring the toys to life and how to manufacture the portals and none of that was an inexpensive or casual endeavor. Obviously, that was funded by the company’s success in other areas and we were able to develop it and market it with a lot of impact. That’s the same kind of focus and approach that we’re going to try to bring to Bungie with Destiny.

With companies like Ubisoft expanding into films and Activision’s locale near Hollywood, what opportunities exist for Hollywood and transmedia for your IPs?

We certainly have those opportunities as we get approached all the time for things like bringing Call of Duty or Skylanders to other media. It’s just something that we approach very carefully. It’s something we have done before. We were doing episodic entertainment on Call of Duty Elite with “Friday Night Fights” and things like that. We have dabbled in it, but I think that we work at it from the standpoint that is this going to make the overall franchise stronger, is this going to add creative ideas that the games can’t. Our primary business is making great games and we want to make sure that we stay close on that and don’t mess anything up in the pursuit of making movies. If we do that, it’s going to be with the right partners, and at the right time, and for the right reason.

codonlineWhat opportunities do you see in the free-to-play gaming space today beyond the Chinese Call of Duty Online game?

That’s a big investment in the free-to-play space and a couple of our mobile games are also free to play and micro transaction based, so it’s something that we are doing on a case by case basis and learning about. The venture we’ve had in China is probably the biggest investment.

That being said, there are new business models that are disruptive and that are interesting. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a market for people purchasing our games and having a great time playing them and feeling like the game is a tremendous value for them. We’re doing free-to-play where we think it’s appropriate.

call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-wii-uWhat are your thoughts on the Wii U as a console so far?

We’re big supporters of Nintendo. We think they’re a great company and we’ve put a lot of games in their launch window for Wii U. It’s the beginning of the new console cycle and we hope that they’re successful with it.

 

Editors' Recommendations

John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi
Contributor
John Gaudiosi has been covering video games for over 25 years, dating back to his work for The Washington Post while in…
The best Call of Duty games, ranked
Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras, as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play that particular game.

Read more
How to play split screen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Soldiers battle in an abandoned airport.

If you're excited at the prospect of playing split screen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, we've got good news: You can! Even better news is that it's a straightforward and easy task to accomplish. All you'll need to ensure is that you have two controllers and that both usernames have been linked to their own Activision accounts. Once you've scored both controllers and gotten your accounts squared away, though, you'll only need to follow a few simple steps to start playing together.

Read more
How to get two primary weapons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Soldiers battle in an abandoned airport.

Building your loadout in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the same as crafting your build in an RPG. Which weapons and perks you take can completely change how you play and what role you should take in any given match. Typically, you are restricted to equipping a primary and secondary weapon, but previous titles included a perk that allowed you to double up on primary weapons to essentially play double duty. That perk, Overkill, isn't in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, so you will need to look for a different solution to get two primary weapons this time around.
How to equip two primary weapons

Instead of the Overkill perk giving you space to carry two primary weapons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 introduces the Gunner Vest. This is a piece of gear rather than a perk, and can be unlocked when you hit level 20, or you can use the Overkill vest when you hit level 50. The Gunner vest lets you start with more ammo, reload faster, and, most importantly, equip two primary weapons.

Read more