Skip to main content

After disappointing 'Infinite Warfare' sales, Call of Duty will go back to its roots

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Last year, the Call of Duty franchise drifted closer to out-and-out sci-fi than ever before with the release of Infinite Warfare. It seems that this year’s follow-up will course-correct toward something altogether more traditional, based on comments made this week during an investor call hosted by its publisher, Activision. Apparently, the series is set to go “back to its roots.”

Thomas Tippl, Activision’s chief operating officer, noted that Infinite Warfare didn’t live up to the company’s sales expectations. In December 2016, it was reported that the game had sold significantly less copies than its immediate predecessor, Black Ops III. “It’s clear that for a portion of our audience, the space setting just didn’t resonate,” said Tippl, according to a report from Polygon.

Recommended Videos

The company’s CEO, Eric Hirshberg, was also on hand to note that fans did respond positively to many of the gameplay innovations present in Infinite Warfare. However, he agreed that the futuristic setting didn’t appeal to many of the franchise’s most ardent fans.

These comments add fuel to speculation that Call of Duty will head back to the past for its next installment. DICE pulled off a similar shift in setting for last year’s Battlefield 1, and the game went on to become a huge hit.

The Call of Duty series started out with a focus on World War II, but when audiences grew tired of that setting, the action was moved to the modern era. This led to installments like Modern Warfare and the original Black Ops, which many consider to be examples of the franchise at its peak.

Whether a return to its roots means World War II specifically — or just an earlier conflict than the futuristic setting of Infinite Warfare — is still up in the air — but Activision knows exactly where the series is headed, as this year’s installment was given the green light two years ago.

Thankfully, fans won’t have to wait too long before they find out more about what 2017 has in store for the Call of Duty franchise. Each new installment tends to be unveiled in the spring, so expect to hear more about this year’s game over the next few months.

Brad Jones
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically
e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has coveredĀ a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Read more
Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?
A soldier crouching with his eyes blacked out.

When Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision, the big question on everyone's mind was what would happen with Call of Duty. Well, it took months of legal battles, but the deal finally went through and the first CoD game to release officially under Microsoft is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox has held firm to its commitment to put all of its first-party titles onto Game Pass on day one for all its subscribers, but is it honoring that deal for the biggest game of the year? We know it isn't an Xbox exclusive and is still cross-platform, after all. If you have an Xbox and a subscription to Game Pass, you might not need to spend any money on Black Ops 6, but only if you meet one specific requirement.
Is Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

The short answer is yes, Black Ops 6 is on Game Pass, but not at every tier. Prior to Black Ops 6 launching, Xbox restructured its Game Pass tiers a bit with new pricing and benefits. What you need to know is that you now need to either be a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to get access to any first-party day-one titles.

Read more
You might want to wait a bit to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Steam
A player runs in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer.

It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch day, which means potentially millions of players are hopping into the new single-player campaign, the updated multiplayer mode, and Zombies. While posts online about the performance of the game seem to be minimal, there have been reported issues on PC, specifically via Steam.

It's been a common story lately about players being mad at third-party launchers on Steam, and that remains the case for Black Ops 6. Call of Duty's is called Call of Duty HQ (COD HQ), and it's a hub for players to manage their game installs, whether they want to only download certain game modes or launch a specific game. It seems as if players can only switch between modes through the launcher and have to go through multiple menus to boot the game up. In the worst cases, they can't launch the game at all.

Read more