Some people hate Call of Duty; they hate the fact it's so massively successful without presenting major changes each game; they hate that all their friends and family seem to play it; they hate the fact that people buy it in their millions and ignore "proper games." These problems could be solved, they think, by the franchise taking a bit of a break. It's not going to happen.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg doesn't see Call of Duty as a yearly release, but as a year-round activity akin to watching sports: “If you look at it through a different lens; if you look at it like, the NFL happens every year and people like it every year and they obsess over it every year and they come back for more every year and I think that it’s an entertainment relationship that’s pretty unique in the gaming space,” he told Games Industry.
Has the publisher been releasing yearly titles too long? Are people getting tired of the series?
“You can’t find a metric that would indicate that it’s fatiguing or that there are signs of slowing. The concurrency of players is higher than ever and not only that, it’s across several games… what we’re trying to do is make it more of a diversified business within itself. ”