14 DAY TRIAL // Activision has talked about the impact its Call of Duty series has on its fans, saying that the popularity of its Call of Duty Elite online service and last year’s Call of Duty XP convention prove that fans think of the franchise not just as a game series, but more of a lifestyle.
The Call of Duty series may have started out just as a new franchise of first person shooters many years ago but it’s quickly become the biggest thing in gaming, breaking sales records with each new iteration and amassing legions of fans all over the world.
Activision, its publisher, hasn’t ignored this growth in popularity and it’s trying to further increase their brand allegiance, with services like the recent Call of Duty Elite, which provides an online network for Call of Duty players to socialize, get together, and analyze their multiplayer performance.
Throw in special conventions like last year’s Call of Duty XP, and Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg believes that the relationship between Call of Duty as a whole and its fans will continue to evolve.
"Both Elite and XP were both experiments in how willing people are to enter a relationship, to treat it more like a brand or a lifestyle,” Hirshberg told Games Industry. “Like I said, we're a long way from doing victory laps but we're in it for the long haul. We made it for the right reasons and believe it’s' right for a players and if we get it right we can change the relationship, make the game better and more fun for players."
You can expect Activision to continue doing events for the Call of Duty community throughout 2012, culminating, as always, with the release of a new Call of Duty game at the end of the year, alongside the Call of Duty Elite 2.0 service, which is set to be improved consistently until then.