Great read Klepek.  Their point of view on the longevity of the first-person shooter genre as compared to the rhythm game market is fascinating.  They will surely test just what the staying power of the franchise is to its limits.

Extremely well written and readable article, Patrick is doing great!

They have no intention of doing anything that risks or changes this franchise while each iteration continues to sell more. I hate cod and all he devs that copy it.

" Wow, what a great debut for Patrick! Nice job and welcome aboard!

A question though,

 "Activision doesn’t always seem to get the credit it deserves in terms of innovation in my opinion, but there is no short supply of it, even in our narrower slate,"

Activision is just a publisher, right? What could they innovate? Distribution? Selling Modern Warfare 2 on Games on Demand for $60?
"

Welcome to Giant Bomb Klepick. Always loved you on 1UP.

to be honest because i thought black ops sales were going to tank because treyarch basically just used the same formula in CoD 4 but i guess not...  i thought the same old formula was growing stale but to each his own i guess

The best part of the article is this:

you can absolutely conclude that the potential for this franchise has never been greater," he said. "In order to achieve this potential, we need to focus: on making games that constantly raise the quality bar; on staying ahead of the innovation curve; on surrounding the brand with a suite of services and an online community that makes our fans never want to leave.

Well it's good to hear they are aware of their strengths and vulnerabilities, but the whole reason why the franchise may inevitably fail is their business mindset. I think the best thing they could do to extend the life of the franchise is to take a break, but that will ultimately cost them huge sales figures in the short term at least.

" won't releasing internal stuff like this get GB into trouble? "

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

Maybe there wont be one this year? Yeah long shot I know

It will be succesful until another yearly release can get a multiplayer following.  COD knows how to give people bite-sized experiences with minimal time between booting up and playing. Not even alot of load time before the matches start. 

They don't even have to kill it; just do it every 2-3 years instead of EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

" Innovation

  

  

"

Very nice read from Klepek, stick around duder.

great start for Klepek!

" Very nice read from Klepek, stick around duder. "

Call of Duty game in China? What?

Great job  Klepek,

First article, great work Patrick.

The first person shooter genre probably won't die out. If it does, it won't be anytime soon. One of the facets of video games is that whether all too realistically or not, it puts the player in a situation with extenuating circumstance that they're not always in. Call of Duty, on the other hand, however indomitable it may be now, that cannot go on forever. Even if they keep innovating, someone else with come along with a bigger and better idea, which may even be later this year with BF3.

You are all FRAGS

" I concur. They will milk it dry, and then fire the whole team when it stops making money for them. "

Hirshberg makes some interesting points but, no one, absolutely no one, can tell me that you can continue to lead like this on a yearly release schedule; there's just no fucking way.

The only reason Call Of Duty sell so much is because it's easy mode gameplay. Point and shoot. Autolock. These things have turned Call Of Duty into casual games on the Xbox 360. There is literally no barrier for entry, and no other requirements besides knowing how an FPS controls. The customization isn't deep. They just jam-pack it with as much as shit as they possibly can. 

More of this, please, Klepek.

Good article and good to see Patrick Klepek writting for Giantbomb!

I'm surprised people haven't cought on the fact that every game is just a series of checkpoints where you need to get from A to B before you are killed by spawning enemies. There is very little in terms of tactics since the game is made so it constantly pushes you forward. It doesn't reward patience, but rather rushing. 

" I'm surprised people haven't cought on the fact that every game is just a series of checkpoints where you need to get from A to B before you are killed by spawning enemies. There is very little in terms of tactics since the game is made so it constantly pushes you forward. It doesn't reward patience, but rather rushing. 

I also can't understand how some people call CoD a "realistic shooter". If so then Need For Speed: Most Wanted is realistic since it has licensed cars and Ace Combat is a simulation since it has licensed planes.

I loved the first game, second one felt like more of the same, third one barely worth playing. MW spiced things up a little bit with a change of scenery and crazy story, but it was still the same gameplay since then it's more of the same again.

When it comes to MP it's just pull LT and then RT faster than you opponent. But people play it because of the unlocks just like people play facebook games or grind in MMO's. I swear people would watch paint dry on a wall if they were given points towards gaining a level. It shouldn't be called prestige it should be called junkie. Points have destroyed games. Facebook games, MMO's, gamerscore, online shooters etc they all have points and people play games for the points rather than the game. What troubles me the most is that despite the fact that I see this I still have an urge to level up in ranks, levels or get points in many games. At least I don't play facebook games I still have some dignity left as a gamer...

"

Pretty much mirrors my opinions on CoD games. When I played CoD2, I was really frustrated by a lot of what I thought was totally fucking busted (what comes to mind was an easily accessible alley-way in one of the British missions that I thought was a great flanking opportunity, only to realize after dying trying to go through there a few times that it was in fact a Wehrmacht monster spawning closet). CoD4 polished it a little bit, but the infinitely spawning enemies with shitty AI made me shout "What the fuck is wrong with you, IW?" The perks system redeemed the multiplayer for me, but I eventually burned out on it, and had no interest in prestiging.

I will say that I have a better opinion of Treyarch's takes on the series. Even though they still use the same fucked gameplay model (which is something Treyarch really can't help), at the very least, the narratives they create aren't so totally up their own asses like MW2 was with Price spouting pseudo-philosophical bullshit.

I wish call of Duty would go away, each game is getting worse and worse. Unless they give you something else to do besides shoot people or set one of the games in World War 1 I won't buy another COD game.

Call of Duty is so overatted, Battlefield is so much more fun and fair.

I think I'm gonna put my money with battle field 3 instead of the next cod. Im getting too sick of cod

I always figured the only way Call of Duty will be dethroned is if another big, huge FPS game comes along and changes everything again.  Much like how Half-Life came along after a few years of Doom clones and, BAM, everything changed.  Call of Duty won't go away.  As mentioned in that memo, FPS games have been around for 20+ years in their current form (I consider Doom to be the foundation of the genre) while music games had nowhere to go creatively after World Tour and Rock Band 2.

" @dagas said:

" I'm surprised people haven't cought on the fact that every game is just a series of checkpoints where you need to get from A to B before you are killed by spawning enemies. There is very little in terms of tactics since the game is made so it constantly pushes you forward. It doesn't reward patience, but rather rushing. 

I also can't understand how some people call CoD a "realistic shooter". If so then Need For Speed: Most Wanted is realistic since it has licensed cars and Ace Combat is a simulation since it has licensed planes.

I loved the first game, second one felt like more of the same, third one barely worth playing. MW spiced things up a little bit with a change of scenery and crazy story, but it was still the same gameplay since then it's more of the same again.

When it comes to MP it's just pull LT and then RT faster than you opponent. But people play it because of the unlocks just like people play facebook games or grind in MMO's. I swear people would watch paint dry on a wall if they were given points towards gaining a level. It shouldn't be called prestige it should be called junkie. Points have destroyed games. Facebook games, MMO's, gamerscore, online shooters etc they all have points and people play games for the points rather than the game. What troubles me the most is that despite the fact that I see this I still have an urge to level up in ranks, levels or get points in many games. At least I don't play facebook games I still have some dignity left as a gamer...

"

Pretty much mirrors my opinions on CoD games. When I played CoD2, I was really frustrated by a lot of what I thought was totally fucking busted (what comes to mind was an easily accessible alley-way in one of the British missions that I thought was a great flanking opportunity, only to realize after dying trying to go through there a few times that it was in fact a Wehrmacht monster spawning closet). CoD4 polished it a little bit, but the infinitely spawning enemies with shitty AI made me shout "What the fuck is wrong with you, IW?" The perks system redeemed the multiplayer for me, but I eventually burned out on it, and had no interest in prestiging.

I will say that I have a better opinion of Treyarch's takes on the series. Even though they still use the same fucked gameplay model (which is something Treyarch really can't help), at the very least, the narratives they create aren't so totally up their own asses like MW2 was with Price spouting pseudo-philosophical bullshit.

"

Nice long rant about how successful COD is...  Geee thanks Giantbomb for putting this up there.  Also i didn't see anything on True Crime in this article, I guess that was older emails?    

Spill the beans on Spyro, @patrickklepek

Preferably the " Activision has decided to give Insomniac their game back" beans.

NOT the "Activision has given development rights to Neversoft in the form of Tony Hawk's Pro Spyro" beans.

As much as I love Call of Duty 4, it over-hyped the series and that resulted in Activision trying to milk the series by rushing a CoD release annually, and every single CoD after CoD4 is just mediocre.

Someday Activision will buy Nintendo and put Shigeru Miyamoto on the CoD teams,
then we'll really see some effed up innovation!
.. YEAH!

Welcome to Giant Bomb, Patrick!

" Someday Activision will buy Nintendo and put Shigeru Miyamoto on the CoD teams,then we'll really see some effed up innovation!.. YEAH! "

" I concur. They will milk it dry, and then fire the whole team when it stops making money for them. "

I've always preferred the Battlefield series to Call of Duty, which I think is shallow and entirely reflex-based. Battlefield moves at a bit of a slower pace and requires a bit more conscious thought and teamwork. It's only a matter of time before the gaming community moves to more thoughtful, team-based games like Battlefield and Team Fortress 2.

The next CoD game really needs to have dedicated servers. I may have to switch to Battle Field 3.

Wow I didn't see that coming, the mention of True Crime: Hong Kong being cancelled. Expect the unexpected, though I kind of thought it might get cancelled, it was still a surprise to see in this article.

People will get tired of it eventually. You can't continually release the same thing and expect more people to line up-they have been experiencing growth, but it won't last forever, even if it does take longer than most of us think. The next big innovator will come around and people will flock to that instead.

Ugh, I hate the CoD franchise to bits. Innovation exists in no way - they're just churning out sequel after sequel. It's not even like the multiplayer runs flawlessly (look at the hit detection). At least with Battlefield, the experience is consistent and different from what CoD is offering.

The Klepmyster has started with a bang!

"I know you're asking, 'but isn't this just like Guitar Hero?' but let me tell you, no, it's not. it's an EFF-PEE-ESS! Don't you know? Those have more staying power than this whole 'music' concept. I know you're thinking that's a silly thing to say, but look at the numbers, the numbers don't lie. People are tired of MUSIC and want it to go away. Well, we're way ahead of them. As you know we 've already disbanded the Guitar Hero Business group, but now that it's finalized I'm pleased to announce we've fired all composers throughout Activision and hired on a talented (and affordable!!) group of fertile cats that we're going to stick into a room with a microphone in order to score all of our future titles. With the newest veterinary medications, we'll be able to keep them in heat year round!"

Excellent article, PK. Much respect. :)

" Great read, Klepek. 

I think that Activision asked the wrong question.  It shouldn't have been "Isn't COD today like GH was a few years ago", they should have asked, "Isn't COD today like Tony Hawk was a few years ago."  The memo correctly points out that the music genre was a flash in the pan.  I wouldn't say it exploded since it existed before GH, but that game made amateurs feel like rock stars even if it was only pretend.  Playing with plastic toy guitars will only get you so far. 

The extreme sports genre on the other hand was much more widespread and lasting than the recent music game genre, and yet the Tony Hawk games have become a punchline within the gaming community.  Why is that?  Oversaturation is certainly a factor.  With every X-Games participant getting their own jumping-spinning-trick filled game, they all became indistinguishable.  And, after a while, the basis of the games all felt alike.  There was a sameness that crept in starting with the bad games and eventually undermining the flagship title, Tony Hawk.   But the genre itself didn't die.  It's just that all the "innovation" Activision tried made things worse year after year.  Finally, they lost the crown to EA's Skate. 

Call of Duty is in that same position albeit in a more stable genre than extreme sports.  The modern military shooter market is incredibly crowded these days and it's very hard to distinguish one game from the next.  Today, COD has brand recognition, but that might not be enough as was the case with Tony Hawk.  Gamers will seek out newer and more innovative games occasionally especially when something that's been around for so long starts to feel "uncool".  Battlefield 3 might be that game, or Bungie's latest project or perhaps whatever Respawn Entertainment is working on.  If I could predict the future, I'd have Michael Patcher's job, but I do believe that change will come whether Activision likes it or not and public perception has a lot to do with how quickly it arrives. 

"