For the time being, there has been no official announcement

Jan 14, 2015 12:35 GMT  ·  By

Our Incoming 2015 series focuses on the most important game launches of the next 12 months, and next up we talk about the future of one of the most popular first-person shooter franchises in the world, Call of Duty.

What we know

Call of Duty has been one of the biggest first-person shooter franchises in history, and for many it is the go-to source of daily entertainment.

The games have a healthy competitive scene and strong eSports presence, and millions upon millions of gamers gobble up the yearly installments and enjoy its run & gun action.

For the time being, there is no other game announced to be in the works for 2015, which might mean that publisher Activision is considering addressing the fatigue that has been building up over the course of the last few years.

Players have been complaining about having to purchase what is essentially the same game every year, just so they can enjoy multiplayer matches, the main driving force of the series, a move which many see as artificial and unwarranted by the actual content in the games.

Activision is also experimenting with a free-to-play version, dubbed Call of Duty Online, and available exclusively in China for the time being.

Call of Duty Online is essentially a compilation of Black Ops and Modern Warfare's most popular competitive maps and modes, flavored with a pinch of localized content, through which the company hopes to address the huge Chinese market and to test the waters of free-to-play viability.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was the first release in Activision's new 3-year development cycle. With Infinity Ward shipping the underwhelming Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013, and Treyarch delivering Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in 2012, it would seem that it's Treyarch's time to step into the limelight.

Why it matters

The game has been aging pretty gracefully, given its annual serialization, but the market is starting to get saturated and won't accept yearly Call of Duty installments for long.

Being one of Activision's biggest franchises, and said to have raked in over $10 / €8.5 billion over the years, Call of Duty is here to stay, but even the publisher acknowledges that the game is on a descending curve nowadays, compared to its former days of glory.

One of the things that Activision did right was to pick Dead Space and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 developer Sledgehammer Games for this year's installment, delivering an experience that brings enough new things to the table to be a worthwhile purchase.

Unfortunately, the single-player campaign, although with high production values and a star-studded cast, is still lackluster, amounting to a mere handful of hours' worth of content.

Multiplayer matches are already starting to focus on team deathmatch, with waiting times for other modes of play forcing many to renounce their favorite ways to enjoy Call of Duty.

The series needs something more in order to recapture the attention of the gaming community, either a gap year or a return to a popular setting, as the company did with Call of Duty: World at War.

Call of Duty screenshots (5 Images)

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
The future has some sweet gadgetsCall of Duty: World at War
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