Love it or hate it, it is undeniable that Call of Duty is one of the most successful and lucrative franchises in the video game industry. It will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2023, and Rob Kostich, president of Activision, used the date to reflect on the present and future of the IP.
During an interview with VentureBeat, Rob Kostich spoke at length about various topics related to the military saga. Although he refrained from revealing the specific plans that are underway, he advanced very interesting things and delved into the management and decision-making process.
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Call of Duty and the challenge of annual releases
For more than a decade, Call of Duty became an annual series, that is, a new installment debuts each year. Of course, the constant stream of releases can lead to audience burnout. How is Activision managing this situation to prevent fans from getting tired and stopping playing?
According to Rob Kostich, the secret is to listen to players and offer unique experiences. Likewise, he stated that it is important to find the balance between games set in a futuristic context and deliveries that occur in an event from the past or present.
In the last decade, Call of Duty visited the past and the future
“It’s about doing it right and delivering the right game to the community, one that they really enjoy in every aspect and it’s up to us to live up to the community’s expectations. Every time we did that, (fans) never said, ‘I can’t believe another Call of Duty is coming out.’ On the contrary, they get excited about it. Our job is to innovate, surprise and delight the community above all,” said the executive.
“I think the important thing is a balance: we feel that we really need to provide good differentiated experiences, good things for people to come in and feel like they are experiencing new types of fun,” commented the president of Activision.
There is Call of Duty for a while
Of course, some installments in the franchise were unable to resonate with audiences or underperformed commercially compared to previous titles. Rob Kostich assured that they try to learn from past situations to plan for the future.
Along these lines, the executive announced that the franchise is in a constant flow of planning, and even announced that they are already thinking about the projects that will arrive within 4 years in the future.
Call of Duty is very far from coming to an end
“We are constantly in our long-term planning phase. “Right now, we have games planned until 2027 for the things we work on (…) We have a massive discussion group around the world that tells us what they think every day about the franchise,” commented the head of Activision.
Of course, keeping the machinery running is a task that requires many resources and personnel. Rob Kostich revealed that there are currently 3,000 developers working on franchise experiences: from the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III to CoD: Mobile.
“They are monumental efforts. The competition is real and so we are once again focusing on how we can meet the expectations of our players. To do it today, it takes much more than what we used to do in the past,” confessed the Activision executive.
But tell us, are you excited about the future of the franchise? Do you think IP needs a break? Let us read you in the comments.
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