Activision took Call of Duty into space with Infinite Warfare when they released the game in November of last year, but three months on, the developer has admitted the move was a bad idea.
During a recent earnings call with investors, the company's COO Thomas Tippl and CEO Bobby Kotick revealed concerns with not only the perception of the space-based game, but the reaction from fans also.
Many gamers instantly revolted against the game, with three million of the total viewers disliking the title's official reveal trailer.
Tippl said: “Activision’s November Release was a high quality, innovative game that paired with Modern Warfare Remastered offered a tremendous amount of value and gameplay variety.
“However, sales underperformed our expectations, and it’s clear that for a portion of our audience the space setting just didn’t resonate.”
On a lighter note, there was much more optimism surrounding the developer's decision to bring back Call of Duty 4 last year, per a remastered edition. Consequentially, the game will be going "back to its roots" with their next title.
During the meeting, Kotick said: “As I’ve said many times before, any long standing franchise like Call of Duty there’s a balancing act that we need to strike between staying true to the things people love about the franchise and also the need to never become complacent, and to keep pushing for innovation to keep the franchise fresh.
“Last year, I don’t think we got that balance right. Infinite Warfare had a ton of great gameplay innovations that many of our fans appreciated, but it also had a setting that didn’t appeal to all of our fans.”
EA's Battlefield 1 was released around the same time as Call of Duty last year and was very well received, attracting almost double of Battlefield 4's online players in the first week of release.
The contrast in reactions between CoD: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1 seems to have sent Activision looking back towards the past, in order to continue to succeed in the future.
Finding the balance between what worked in the past and what needs to happen, moving forward, for Call of Duty, is Activision's priority.
And now, their CEO is even giving their fans some reassurance.
Kotick said: “The good news is is that I am excited to say that in 2017 we think we have this balance in perfect harmony, with a game that our teams are very passionate about, with a lot of great innovations. But, that also has the traditional combat that we know our fans are going to love."
