Activision Asks Itself: Isn't Call of Duty Like Guitar Hero Used to Be?

[John Funk]

Activision Asks Itself: Isn't Call of Duty Like Guitar Hero Used to Be?

A leaked Activision internal memo has CEO Eric Hirshberg asking employees: Isn't COD these days like Guitar Hero was a few years ago?

It was three and a half years ago that the wildly popular Guitar Hero hit its popularity peak with Guitar Hero III. The music genre was king of the hill - EA's Rock Band was booming just as hard - and GH was Activision's superstar.

That position has shifted, these days. acquired by Giant Bomb [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107672-Activision-Pulls-the-Plug-on-Guitar-Hero-Franchise].

While the similarities are obvious, Hirshberg also says there are a few crucial differences between the two franchises that make COD a more sound investment. "[There] are several key differences between the two franchises worth considering," wrote Hirshberg. "Guitar Hero quickly reached incredible heights, but then began a steady decline. Call of Duty, on the other hand, has steadily grown every single year of its seven-year existence."

He's not incorrect in that. Take COD4's 2 million copies sold in a month and compare it to Black Ops' 5.6 million in a day, if you want some proof. More to the point, however, Hirshberg says that the music genre popularized by Guitar Hero was experimental and while it had significant appeal, it never really weathered the test of time. The FPS, however, has been consistently popular since the days of Doom and Quake - and he thinks there will always be an audience for that sort of game.

Furthermore, says Hirshberg, the audience is more engaged in COD than they ever were in Guitar Hero. With Guitar Hero, you'd break it out with a group of friends, but that was it - Call of Duty's thriving multiplayer community, however, means that gamers keep coming back week after week to shoot bad guys in the face.

On all metrics, the memo reads, Call of Duty has never been more popular - sales, hours spent on multiplayer, DLC purchases - but Hirshberg admits that the franchise's "potential" won't be reached unless Activision works for it.

[blockquote]In order to achieve this potential, we need to focus: on making games that constantly raise the quality bar; on staying ahead of the innovation curve; on surrounding the brand with a suite of services and an online community that makes our fans never want to leave.

Entertainment franchises with staying power are rare. But Call of Duty shows all of the signs of being able to be one of them. It's up to us.[/blockquote]

Whatever you think of Activision as a moral entity, its leadership is fairly business-savvy. There's no question that COD is better suited to longevity than Guitar Hero (not the least of which because it doesn't require gamers to keep buying plastic instruments) but will yearly installments result in franchise fatigue?

Maybe try a once-every-two-years thing, guys. Keep supporting the old games with DLC, sure, but space out the releases a bit. Just some advice.

(Giant Bomb [http://www.giantbomb.com/news/isnt-call-of-duty-today-just-like-guitar-hero-was-a-few-years-back/3057/])

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[Thunderhorse31]

I imagine the success or failure of this next offering - the Frankenstein that will be Modern Warfare 3 - will tell us a lot about whether or not CoD will go the way of GH.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

"Has grown steadily each year"? Meaning staying almost the exact same, except with a few different guns, more glitches, and less balance each year?

*EDIT* Here's a fantastic idea, how about we stop quoting me now? IT WAS A JOKE. CALM DOWN PEOPLE.

 

[silver wolf009]

Maybe. I could see the duality of it if I look hard enough, but perhaps CoD will continue to flourish, who knows? All I know is that I am still prowling WaW, and I don't plan to change that.

 

[jpoon]

Sweet memo by Hirshberg...for me to poop on!

I will still never buy another shitty game from these dbags again. I can only hope more people continue to do the same.

 

[RatRace123]

Eventually COD will hit its ultimate peak and will begin the same decline that befell Guitar Hero. I don't doubt that, I just wonder what will come next.

 

[Colonel Alzheimer's]

Personally I'm tired of CoD by now, so I won't be buying the next one. I think Modern Warfare 3 will sell very well, but after that I can't really see the franchise growing much more.

 

[therandombear]

There's no question that COD is better suited to longevity than Guitar Hero (not the least of which because it doesn't require gamers to keep buying plastic instruments)

Keep buying plastic instruments? guitar from GH3 works with GH 5 and drums/mic from GH: WT works with GH5 and other installments that require them...

CoD is worse tbh, "Keep Buying 15$ map packs to play online with people"...which is the whole point of the game, to play online =/

 

[The .50 Caliber Cow]

I've never played a COD or GH game so I guess that's why I'm completely indifferent about Guitar Hero being gone or the possibility of COD dying off. If anything, this will mean my friends will be badgering me to buy into another series instead... >.<

 

[John Funk]

"Has grown steadily each year"? Meaning staying almost the exact same, except with a few different guns, more glitches, and less balance each year?

Sales, audience, amount of time spent online.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Uhh I don't see how COD selling more copies each year differentiates it from Guitar Hero. I'm sure GH sold more copies each year until it's peak at III. We just have to wait for COD to peak, and then it too will decline.

With Battlefield: 3 on the way, we might finally have the Rockband that takes down COD.

 

[Tyyka]

COD was a good old school computer fps game until a leprechaun had sex with a rabbits foot and IW shat out the golden goose that is Modern warfare. Everything after that has been riding the coattails of its success and it has become worse with each installment. The only reason they are selling is because people hold onto hope that the next one will return them to the glorious time of the first MW, but it will never happen again. I get on MW2 now and I can't even get a game started except on team deathmatch, the game is a ghost town. Six months from now Black ops will be the same.

The entire problem with modern gaming is these massive companies grab onto anything good and then steamroll out a thousand copies until people are sick to death of it then they leach onto the next hot thing like like a vampire out for lunch. The most successful FPS game of all time and probably forever has had one game(and one graphical update), thats right folks, Counter Strike, a game over ten years old, is more balanced and has a more loyal player base and more respect then a hundred modern fps shooters will ever have.

Here's hoping battlefield 3 a game years in the making instead of a carbon copy with a few graphical tweaks and a handful of bugs, can break the mold and deliver something worth staying up till 2 in the morning again.

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

So does that make MOH the Rock Band of FPS?

No, i think Battlefield is the candidate but that's not going to be considered GH status for a LONG time.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

There's no question that COD is better suited to longevity than Guitar Hero (not the least of which because it doesn't require gamers to keep buying plastic instruments) but will yearly installments result in franchise fatigue?

I never really understood why anyone would keep buying the instruments. I bought the GH3 bundle and to this day that is the only plastic guitar I have. (Not counting one for a different system, anyway) I never bothered with the other stuff, but even those took like four years to expand with the keyboard and pro instruments.

Then again, my brother has gone through 4 guitars because each and every single one stopped working properly. Somehow mine still works perfectly despite extreme over-use.

 

[Alden Hou]

when he says innovation, what he actually means is a slightly modified engine, a crappy internet infrastructure, and 2 new gimmicks like a ballistic knife and some sorta totally imba ffs invoking piece of crap so it attracts the 12-years crowd of prepubescent whiny bitches with too much money on their hard working parents' hands, only to buy a yearly reiteration of the same game with new skins, and multiple 15$ dlcs that were meant to be in the game when it was released.


SCREW YOU KOTICK, asshole ruins infinity ward and will milk the once prosperous and truly amazing call of duty into an abomination that no one will want to play after modern warfare 18 comes out, but thats still billions of dollars in Koticks pocket, and that kinda makes me die inside.

 

[Alden Hou]

damn straight!

 

[Pingieking]

I can see CoD turning into Activision's much better selling Madden in the next few years. It is entirely possible that they can approach this with a "One game per year" approach and maintain success over several decades.