Activision Blizzard has partly blamed the WW2 setting of “Call of Duty: Vanguard” for that game failing to meet its sales expectations.
The most recent entry in the annual blockbuster franchise has still been one of the best-selling titles in gaming since release in November, but compared to prior ‘Duty’ entries its performance has been weak. In its annual report, Activision says:
“Our 2021 premium release didn’t meet our expectations, we believe primarily due to our own execution. The game’s World War II setting didn’t resonate with some of our community and we didn’t deliver as much innovation in the premium game as we would have liked.”
The company goes on to say they have higher hopes for the next entry “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” from Infinity Ward which serves as a follow-up to 2019’s successful reboot of the ‘Modern Warfare’ brand.
The underwhelming sales is reflected in player counts as according to recently published internal figures, Activision’s monthly active users – almost wholly comprised of Call of Duty players – declined from 150 million a year in March last year to 100 million this past March.
The studio reportedly has over 3,000 people and all of its core studios now working on the “Call of Duty” franchise. A Bloomberg report earlier this year suggests they may delay 2023’s entry – the first time in nearly twenty years that the series has skipped an annual release – as executives allegedly believe they are introducing new versions too rapidly.
Source: VGC
