Wait. Go back. We should talk about Spyro some more. I for one would love a Call of Duty: Spyro the Dragon game.

i agree what you say about FPSs. one could say they are in rut right now but wait until battlefield 3 comes out.

" Fantastic article. I look forward to reading more stuff like this from you, Patrick. "

Veeeeery interesting. It shows that Activision is at least paying attention to what happened with Guitar Hero, even if they aren't leaping to apply those lessons to everything. While I don't have any real affection for the Call of Duty games (I've only played the original Modern Warfare), it certainly seems to be growing, rather than shrinking. We'll see how long that lasts, I guess. Nothing can last forever, right?

I don't need $400 in plastic instruments around my house to play Call of Duty. Honestly, I don't mind paying $60 once a year for some good arcade shooting action. I play it for a couple of weeks and get my money's worth out of it. I'm not some rabid CoD fanboy, but it doesn't piss me off as much as it does most of the GB community, for some reason.

interesting, thx for the article

I'd rather see a comeback of tony hawk (a good one) than spyro

BRING TONY BACK GODDAMMIT!

First Person Shooters, the cockroaches of the gaming industry.

Call of Duty is the Madden of FPS.

the deebutt! great article, guy!

they need to freshen up the cod experience, make a new graphics engine or something.....goddamn activision sux. btw, that first comment is straight on! they are so gonna do that

how much innovation can you add to the call of duty style of first person shooters war, iron sights and head shots  just get boring no matter the setting or graphical enhancements even the new Battlefield 3 looks boring what would turn the genre on its head is a real war simulation not a Hollywood blockbuster remake thats overly scripted 

Its incredible how FPS-games in general keep selling in these insane amounts when there really isn't anything new added. Imo FPS-games are getting worse and worse for every years that passes and it'll take a lot to get me to buy them again.

Good read, Call of Duty will no doubt go on to sell millions upon millions for the next few years but that's immense pressure constantly "raising the bar" for each yearly iteration. I imagine that Beachhead project as a greatest hits version of the modern warfare/black ops franchise where the fan favorite weapons and maps are cobbled together.

Awesome artical man, glad to see you're starting strong already.

great article klepek, activision will do what it does best. Ill let you decide what that is.

COD the most overated FPS mp game ever.

Wow, Patrick, I thought you had penned that headline. Glad - and bewildered - that Activision wrote it.

" great article klepek, activision will do what it does best. Ill let you decide what that is. "

The Klepek hard at work! Great article.

I want an article containing some real journalism, not conjecture based on some internal memo released a while back; if I wanted a soapbox editorial I'd go browse in one of CoD message boards strewn about the net. 

I guess I should be grateful that the money I spend on games doesn't really register on my radar as something that I have to worry about. Even though I like many other games better, I always have fun with my yearly CoD title. Once that stops, I'll stop buying them. I'll be buying MW3 this year.

I dont think it is, its just a game, not a game AND a ton of plastic instruments to go with it

Cool article, though I think they pretty much just state the obvious. Most of the IPs activision has run into the ground have been from fairly niche genres(i.e. music games, extreme sports games) that were probably going to fade in popularity regardless of how many iterations they released.

COD on the other hand is a first person mother fucking shooter. If that genre ever fades out, the industry will have a lot more to worry about than activision killing another IP.

" Its incredible how FPS-games in general keep selling in these insane amounts when there really isn't anything new added. Imo FPS-games are getting worse and worse for every years that passes and it'll take a lot to get me to buy them again.

This article amazes me. It's brilliant. Thank you, Patrick!

"

This week has Giant Bomb fucking bringin' it in terms of news. I go away for half an hour and there's a whole load of new content that I genuinely want to read all of.

KLEPEK

" I want an article containing some real journalism, not conjecture based on some internal memo released a while back; if I wanted a soapbox editorial I'd go browse in one of CoD message boards strewn about the net.  "

Sweet, more of this kind of news, please.

Awesome work Kelp.

Don't forget Tony Hawk and how that franchise bombed. It's the one game a year system that screws up these franchises.

New developers need a new formula. Id let the new guys try somthign different with the Call Of Duty franchise and see where it takes them. Id be OK with something like Rainbow six call of duty games alternating with the Classic COD games every 2 or so years. If their smart i think they should make 1 more Black Ops / Classic COD game in 2012 and only release DLC for it for 1+ years. So the game comes out on Nov 2012 then every 3 months they release some DLC to keep the community going. If they reduce Map packs to even $8 - $10 and thrown in the odd throwback map pack for free (or even just free if you own the previous games) then you can continue to create sales to the equivalent of $120 in 2 years or whatever they would make from 2 retail games in that time.
Think  COD (as much as I love it) needs a break and definitely to be freshened up a little but I'm pretty sure as were all aware the powers that be will just run it into the ground.
Battlefield I feel is starting to go the same way although to a lesser extent with the Bad Company games so I hope BF3 is as good as it looks so the community can be as dedicated and long lasting as the BF2  community is and was.

Everything in this article sounds business-y. Even when talking about innovation, it sounds like the memo is only talking about innovative ways to charge people money. From free-to-play to DLC to whatever weird figurine-based Spyro thing they showed off at that Toy Fair, none of this stuff sounds very fun for the people not getting paid to make it. But fuck if Call of Duty doesn't sell, so it's no wonder everyone wants a piece of that pie. I can't say that Battlefield 3's graphics don't blow me away, but if it plays like COD then I'm all set to be underwhelmed.

I understand that video games are a business, but if this memo was meant to make Activision seem like a place where people care about making fun games first then it still failed. Innovation isn't born in a board room, looking at sales figures and "hours logged." I just wonder what Activision hopes to fall back on once this bubble inevitably bursts. At least the guy who wrote this memo and everyone above him will have enough money by that point.

I'm willing to be interested again in this franchise again if they are really serious about changing up the game. If their idea of changing up the game is to add more explosions then they have failed.

Nice article :) I do think COD dominance will fade, maybe not with MW3 or the next treyarch game but definitely after that. Although it's sad that it's been run into the ground I'm excited and optimistic about the new game franchise or even (hopefully) genre that will have mass appeal

I like how it went from, everyone hated the news and there was no point in reading it, to, this shit is bananas we need more.

alright

This is the kind of news I'd like to see more of at Giantbomb, awesome job mr. Klepek!

Great article - very interesting to get an appreciation for the insider buzz. The activision / Infinity Ward struggle has certainly made some decent headlines in the past! I would love to see #'s for total sales for the mentioned games.

A big distinguisher for me between the two genre titles is that a guitar-hero title essentially turns into a game played when you get together with buddies and get smashed. DUst of the guitar and drums and play for a few hours. A good FPS on the other hand is something that can be played solo or online regularly for years. I'm still favoring Battlefield Bad Company 2 even a year after it's release (plus CoD's suck based on my preferences for online FPS with teamwork elements).

Again, great article.

First off great article Mr. Klepek. The downfall of Call of Duty might just depend on what happens with the next non - Treyarch game, and then again with what ever Respawn decides to do

Love it. Patrick is already a great addition to the team.

Cool article. I like the fact I can read more news content from Giant Bomb now with Paddy Klepek on the team.

Knocking it out of the park from day one, Patrick. Keep it up!

Awesome read. What I find interesting is Activision's projection that COD games will continue to sell more because the previous games have always increased in sales. Are they projecting that COD games will increase in sales forever?  

Giant Bomb leveled up!

It sounds like all Activision's "innovations" are in the field of marketting :/