For those who don't know, the reveal trailer of Infinite Warfare has a massive amount of dislikes:

8.6 million views. 192k likes. 400k dislikes.

When a concerned investor asked about the situation in a conference call, this was apparently the response from Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg:

http://charlieintel.com/2016/05/05/activision-ceo-responds-dislikes-infinite-warfare-trailer/

First of all, you’ve gotta love the passion of gamers. This is an industry like no other. And we love that our fans treat this franchise like its their own and have such strong points of view about it. There just aren’t many entertainment franchises on Earth that can generate the type of passion that Call of Duty can. That’s a good thing.

Secondly, of course we know that there are people in our community who are nostalgic for the boots on the ground style gameplay, and that’s why we made Modern Warfare Remastered. But we also have millions of people in our community who want to have new innovative experiences in the game each year, and Infinite Warfare is going to deliver that.

And the good news is is this year we found a way to deliver both in one package while keeping our community together.

And while of course we see the passionate opinions online we also look at other measurements and the fact is, although its very early, the preorders are off to a very strong start. Views of the reveal trailer are up. And in fact the number of likes per view on the Infinite Warfare reveal trailer are also the highest we’ve ever seen.

We’ve seen this in the franchise before. The reveal trailer for Black Ops 2, which took the franchise into the future for the first time, had the most dislikes of any reveal trailer we had ever made at that time. And that [Black Ops 2] went on to become our most successful game ever.

The franchise has never been stronger. We have more people playing Black Ops 3, a game that takes place in the future with boost jumps and fictitious weapons and all the rest, than any game in our history. So what we know for sure is that if we always just did what worked in the past and never took any creative risks, we wouldn’t have a franchise. The day to worry is the day we stop trying new things.

As someone who has enjoyed multiplayer Black Ops III more than any COD title since the first Black Ops, I have no issue with another game set in the future. As you might guess from my forum name, I'm not exactly opposed to science fiction. I also have to guess that a large number of those dislikes come from people who just hate COD, and nothing could have been done gain their approval.

Probable reasons for dislikes include: People who hate COD, people who hate science fiction, people who hate boost jumping, people who are comparing this game to Halo, people who hate Activision, people who don't care about single player, people angry that they can't buy COD4 separately, people angry that only 10 maps are returning in COD4, people who like disliking things that have a lot of dislikes, and people who like David Bowie.

But my most disliked COD games--MW3 and Advanced Warfare--weren't disliked for their setting, or for having or not having "boots on the ground" gameplay. I disliked them because I didn't enjoy playing them. Make a fun game, regardless of in-game movement, and I'll enjoy playing it.

And is everyone ranting about super jumps and wall running right now honestly not going to play Titanfall 2 when it's released?

Well, if "not trying new things" is the standard for worry, then I'd be worried. That trailer is basically armored future-bros shooting other armored future-bros with future assault rifles while shouting future tactical-speak with bland future-rock playing in the background.

So basically, every CoD ever.

Man they must've been worrying for a long time now? What's in been? 7 years now?

People will still snatch this game up like they do with every Call Of Duty and they will all use the excuse " I just bought it so I could get COD4"

so after cod4?

So is it Star Wars now? WW2 ships and planes and rifles, but in space, and robots are inexplicably incapable of doing anything of importance?

Don't even bother telling me if there are any psychics in this game, I know there are psychics in the game.

i thought the dislikes were about the Bowie cover.

inb4 all the "they haven't tried anything new since CoD4" jo... oh. They've already been made.

I thought that too, but, I dunno, at least every game is in some way identifiable, even if it's only a surface coat of paint that separates them. Remember that this is a response from a corporate man to an investor, meant to assure those who have money riding on this franchise (as in, way more money than the puny $60 it takes to preorder one copy) that it will continue to be one of the most profitable gaming franchises in the world.

As far as whether or not Call of Duty is actually stagnant? Yeah, I'd say it is, but the things that I think are stagnant about the series are things that are stagnant about linear AAA shooters in general. They focus on telling cheesy, bad stories and they connect subpar, super-scripted shooting sequences that never feel any different with set pieces that always feel like they exemplify a Michael Bay stereotype more than Michael Bay himself ever has. I'd lump The Order: 1886, Battlefield, and Uncharted all in the same category.

Seriously, though. Does he not know that they've been doing the same thing over and over again for like 7 years now?

This is the most interesting looking cod game since the first modern warfare. So cod heads can go eat some cod's heads.

Right on ;)

People still buying those games. To be honest tell me what changes could you make to keep it fresh? That wouldn't be cod anymore. All the fps are stall at this point. That's why some company's trying to mix em up with mobas now. Will that work time will tell. But why they making new cod games? Because majority of people still playing them. I'm not the one of them but that's how it is.

interesting, I'm surprised how well this damage control is especially on the investor end.

It doesn't matter what it was, any official CoD-related thing is going to get a huge amount of dislikes. It doesn't actually tell you much about the people who have continued to play those games over the last few years; it tells you more about the people really dedicated to backlash against CoD (whether they are the biggest franchise still or not). It just has that reputation from a certain selection of the gaming player-base (and for the most part, it hasn't put a dent in their sales - failing to placate their closest fans with good games has hurt their sales).

As someone who hasn't given a shit about Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 2, I don't really understand the hate it's getting. Better to try something new then retread the same old crap. But I think I'll get my sci-fi fix from Destiny.

I wonder how many of those who disliked will buy the deluxe edition day one.

The only new thing they've tried is how many different editions of the game they can sell and DLCs to put out.

That's the strange thing about this. There are so many reasons people might dislike this video, so it seems disingenuous to claim any of them is the REAL reason.

You know, for a game series that "hasn't tried anything new since 2007" there sure is a sizable amount of Call of Duty players who seem upset with that new thing they tried in 2014, and then adjusted in 2015.

No one ever seems to respond to this, and it's a weird double standard. It's like going into a Street Fighter V thread, and saying "Really? These games are still just about two people hitting each other?"

true

fwiw I don't put too much stock into a company person's answer to investor call questions during quarterly earnings etc. It's more about sounding good to placate nervous investors who usually deeply understand the financials but not necessarily the products than providing real sustenance. I'm sure that CEO just had that canned answer ready to go to deflect a potential perceived weakness. That answer seemed super "on message" to me and was a decent answer of that sort of thing. TBf it's not like Activision really knows why exactly the dislikes are there either.

Honestly, the dislikes are unwarranted and won't effect sales. Remember all the people "boycotting" Modern Warfare 2 because of there being no dedicated servers? Yeah, every single one of those dudes still bought the game on day 1.

YouTube likes do not matter.

Why even feel the need to address it like that? Because the media made a big deal about it? I imagine something like this is a daily thing for Activision...

I'm sure we shouldn't be worried by the fact that 1 they haven't been trying new things in a long while, and 2 they're using the popularity of Cod4 to sell this new game to fans.

If Mario Kart can keep doing it then why not Call of Duty. The fans of this style of gameplay will be satisfied and the people that don't like it will continue not buying it - the balance will remain untouched, and that balance has been earning them millions of dollars each year.

LOL slightly more Sci-fi but the basically the same as the last two CoD games.

It's true we don't know totally where it's coming from but I've seen a poor reaction around otherwise. A little tough to say though because the last couple CoD games were like that and still sold well (if not huge CoD numbers).