The franchise is clearly beginning to fatigue gamers after its thirteenth instalment
‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ was launched on Friday 4th November 2016 to much fanfare. Yet things are not looking good for the big action shooter franchise.
Despite topping the UK chart, physical sales are down 48.4 percent according to a statement by GFK Chart-Track. This is a considerable drop when compared to the previous edition: ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 3’.
Arguably, ‘Black Ops 3’ had the advantage of being sold on a previous generation of consoles. Yet this in fact only accounts for 4.8 percent of lost sales.
A dip in sales was expected due to the ‘Black Ops’ series being the more popular ‘brand’ of the franchise. This decline, however, is sure to startle publisher Blizzard Activision.
Especially when we take into account the users who are playing it on popular game service steam, with just under 70,000 concurrent players on the first weekend for ‘Black Ops 3’. Compared to the 15,000 who played ‘Infinite Warfare’ in its launch weekend.
A Pinch Of Salt
Although it is worth noting that GFK Chart-Tracker only takes into account UK physical sales. This is something that is declining each year anyway. Additionally, ‘Infinite Warfare’ remains the biggest shooter launch of 2016, beating its rivals ‘Battlefield 1’ and ‘Titanfall 2’.
It comes only in second place for the biggest game launch of 2016 to EA’s mega-popular football game ‘FIFA 2017’.
Blizzard Activision has also introduced a different monetisation system into the game with microtransactions allowing gamers to buy slightly better weapons. Adding an extra stream of revenue to an already profitable game.
Also, many gamers have opted for the legacy edition of the game, which includes a remastering of ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ adding up to £20 to the base price. This could mean that this year’s game may end up being more profitable than previous years.
It is yet unknown if the publisher is going to rest the yearly franchise.
Although not yet being in a free-fall, as ‘Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ is predicted to sell upwards of 15 million copies in its lifetime (down from the 20 plus million ‘Black Ops 3’ sold), the franchise is clearly beginning to fatigue gamers after its thirteenth instalment.
