14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Activision believes that its upcoming Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is expected to once again lead the industry when it comes to both pre-orders and overall sales for the year, but that the title is not immune to the long-term decline in reservations that is currently affecting all major titles.
Eric Hirshberg, the chief executive officer and president of the company’s publishing division, is quoted by GamesIndustry.biz as saying that his company is taking a number of measures in order to mitigate the effects and put its titles ahead of the decline curve.
He states, “You guys can see the same thing we see industry-wide, which is that there's been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to preorders. We think that's happening due to a number of factors: Things like increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles; titles being widely available on day one; and the decline overall for demand of software on the previous gen consoles.”
Activision has not yet talked about the actual pre-order numbers for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but the company says that it has measured purchase intent for the title and it is at the moment superior to that of last year’s Ghosts.
The video game publisher depends heavily on the franchise for its long-term profits and needs to make sure that as many players as possible pick up each new installment and stay engaged with it for as long as possible.
Hirshberg says that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is not shielded from long-term industry trends and that the experience, developed by Sledgehammer Games, can represent a new beginning for the series.
Launch date is set for November 4 at the moment, and gamers will be able to play the title on the PC, the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, last-gen consoles and mobile devices.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare takes gamers to the near future and features a story focused on a Private Military Company that attacks national armies and drags the world into a series of bloody conflicts featuring high-tech weaponry, including exo-skeletons and a rifle that can print its own ammunition.
Sledgehammer Games has promised that it will deliver more emotion to single-player and that a number of innovations are also planned for all the multiplayer modes, which are supposed to be revealed in a special event at Gamescom 2014 on August 11.
