Andrew Carolan
If you’ve been in Xtra Vision or Gamestop lately, you will notice the cardboard cut-outs promoting the next Call Of Duty, due as always in November. This time it is called Call Of Duty Ghosts because apparently the Modern Warfare subset has gone dry. The question here is simple: how long will it be before these games come to an end and do we want them to?
For years now, the Call Of Duty franchise has captivated the gaming world. It all began back in 2003 with the first instalment but the sales never truly rose to glorious heights until number 3 and then 4, Modern Warfare (2007). On the PS3, these games were able to become truly spectacular thanks to the visuals and online mode. People could now talk and kill each other with a range of weapons across a span of realistic, large environments boasting mountains, towns, ruined villages and factories. These features furthermore developed and graduated as with each year, a new installment was released: World At War (2008), Modern Warfare 2 (2009), Black Ops (2010), Modern Warfare 3 (2011) and last year’s, Black Ops 2. But for a game that is quite simple in its intent, is there anything new to offer the fans? The sales figures might just be showing that there isn’t.
The Launch Month sales are often one of the strongest points for indicating the enthusiasm for the new game. After all, November is a good month to release in because Christmas is just around the corner and so, the franchise has always chosen to stick with a similar release date. Going by PS3 and Xbox360, Modern Warfare and World At War built a base of momentum with around 2 million sales apiece then. As I’m sure many of you will know, they only gathered further popularity and so built on sales thereon so that with Modern Warfare 2, there were over 6 million sold in the first month. Then, there were 8 million with Black Ops and 8.8 million with Modern Warfare 3 and then an alarming 7.4 million with Black Ops 2. I can guess what you’re thinking and I quite frankly agree: pathetic. With that in mind however, let’s consider the long term figures.
As we can see with the trajectory, it has pretty much been up and up with significant boosts in 2007, 2009 and 2010. What’s interesting is that the new subset or subtitles (i.e. Modern Warfare or Black Ops) brought a surge in sales. So perhaps, Ghosts is what people want- a new story. As for Black Ops 2, we are circa 7-8 months on from its launch and while it has fared better in post- Christmas sales than Modern Warfare 2, there is a lack of certain figures for us to go by yet. Come November, we may have a completely different story to tell of how the franchise has only ever prospered.
Ghosts will have the liberty of spanning across both the old and new generation consoles. If Xbox One and PS4 sell strongly, I think this game will be a safe bet for many test out the new engine. Of course, it will likely still reach the millions in figures of units sold on the PS3 and Xbox 360 nonetheless; such is the endurance of the series. Not much can be revealed about the story but visually, it looks as spectacular as ever, so please watch the trailer below and comment on where you think the Call Of Duty saga is heading.
