Call of Duty
While no Call of Duty game ever “flops” anymore, at least in comparison to any other franchise that isn’t itself, Activision would certainly prefer to not have to go up against a new Rockstar game while trying to compete for the hearts and wallets of holiday gift buyers. Just about any company releasing a video game would share that sentiment.
However, Call of Duty stands out as a franchise that seems to get burned in particular by Rockstar. If you ask Call of Duty fans where the series started to go awry, I would wager the majority would tell you either Call of Duty: Ghosts or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Those two games, and even Modern Warfare 3, were not as warmly received as others in the franchise, and it took until the recently released Call of Duty: WWII for many to view the series as back on track (although I personally enjoyed Black Ops III a lot).
You know what also didn’t help either of those two games? The release of Grand Theft Auto V for last generation and current generation consoles in 2013 and 2014. Why put up with a Call of Duty game that you’re not thrilled about, when one of the best games of this and last generation is readily available?
Call of Duty: WWII was great, but now the pressure is going to be on the franchise to follow up. Will Treyarch opt for another WWII follow up? Whatever they have been working on has been under development since before Activision got to see how well received WWII was. If they are full-steam already in a direction that fans are tired of, specifically anything futuristic, Red Dead Redemption 2 will likely already be on store shelves waiting to swoop in and adopt any unhappy CoD fans, just like Grand Theft Auto V did years before.
