The yearly release of Call of Duty games was annual entertainment spectacle that ushered in the launch of a new game that often beat the opening day sales of blockbuster movies. That was how Call of Duty was as it ushered in a new era of online competitive multiplayer shooter. Activision has supported their Call of Duty games up until 1 year after its release. But now everything is about to change as Treyarch studio has announced their plans for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.
In a Facebook livestream broadcast yesterday, Treyarch studio Head Dan Bunting discussed the
potential support Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 up to 2017. He says that the game is popular enough to still be supported because of the huge fan base. This is notable as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was released back in 2015.
As for the specific content that will be released on 2017, Dan Bunting said that doesn't have anything specific to say yet. But he does tell fans to expect more Zombie support including a new feature called Newton's Cookbook. When asked for more specifics, he simply tells that he can't say anything right now. But he does say that he is excited about working on support Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and tells that as long as players continue to play the game, he assures that more content is sure to come. "We can look forward to another healthy and fun year of updates in 2017" says the developer.
However, the lying implication of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3's enduring popularity a year after its release is 2016's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's mediocre success. Supporting Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 up to 2017 could be a sign that Black Ops 3 may be more popular to gamers and Infinite Warfare failed to ride on its success. As of now Battlefield 1 is the more popular shooter. And with a genre of many competitors including the well received Titanfall 2 who also suffers from mediocre success, Call of Duty has a ton of competition.
The question now is how would Activision revive the Call of Duty franchise and compete with other shooters. Next year they would have to compete with Star Wars Battlefront 2 which is expected to be bigger and better than the first game. The safe choice would be creating Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and try to recapture Call of Duty: Black Ops 3's success. Or maybe take the bolder and more exciting route and reboot the series. One of the reasons why Battlefield 1 was a success was because it made semi reboot and went back to its roots. Maybe Call of Duty could do the same and try their hand at a World War 1 version of Call of Duty. Activision has to choose their next move wisely as the next game of the series could be the end of it. Or maybe Call of Duty has already run its course and it's time to end the series.
