Activision's Astonishing Roadmap: Unveiling the Thrilling Four-Year Plan for Call of Duty!

Highlights

Activision has already planned out the next four years of Call of Duty games, ensuring the longevity of the popular franchise.

The successful shift of Call of Duty: Warzone to a free-to-play structure significantly propelled the sales of the mainline installments to an unprecedented level. Activision's approach to ensuring the Call of Duty franchise remains vibrant involves the exploration of various settings and time periods, all while maintaining the satisfaction of its loyal fanbase.

An executive at Activision recently disclosed that the company has already mapped out the upcoming four years' worth of Call of Duty games. This information was shared as part of a broader discussion about the series' history, current state, and future prospects.

With Modern Warfare 2 breaking numerous franchise records and Call of Duty: Mobile maintaining its dominance in the mobile gaming market four years after its release, Activision's longstanding series seems to be thriving like never before. Furthermore, the gaming giant has also established a significant presence in the highly profitable battle royale market, which it entered with the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone in 2020.

As for the future of the franchise, Activision President Rob Kostich has revealed that the publisher has already planned out all upcoming Call of Duty games until 2027. In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Kostich stated, "We are constantly in our planning phase." Expanding on this, Kostich explained how Activision regularly engages with a "massive focus group," paying close attention to player feedback, in order to determine the direction of the franchise.

The official admitted that while this approach has not always been flawless, it has still proven to be beneficial for the company, allowing Call of Duty games to meet or exceed expectations on most occasions. One notable example of this is the original Modern Warfare 2, which the official highlighted as a pivotal moment in the series' history. Released in 2009, the game propelled Call of Duty to unprecedented levels of popularity and had a significant impact on the gaming industry as a whole.

Reflecting on other significant milestones, the official also emphasized the success of Warzone as a major triumph for the franchise. The decision to make Call of Duty free-to-play was not an easy one, considering the publisher had achieved considerable success with its annual release model since the late 1990s. There was a fear that a high-budget freemium game would cannibalize sales of the mainline installments. However, it was discovered that Warzone actually boosted the sales of the main games to unprecedented heights, as evidenced by the record-breaking launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Activision plans to continue incorporating various time periods into future Call of Duty games, in an effort to maintain interest and excitement, according to Kostich. The President of Activision also downplayed concerns about the franchise becoming stale due to the annual release schedule, stating that as long as the company continues to meet the expectations of Call of Duty fans, exhaustion will not be an issue.