Lack of Call of Duty hype points to franchise fatigue

Yesterday marked the annual reveal of the latest Call of Duty title, and as usual we were promised new features, a new story and a new set of characters to wage war with. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but this year's reveal felt different somehow, as if COD fans throughout the world just watched the latest teaser trailer and let out one big sigh of, "What? More of the same? Again?"

I could be exaggerating things here slightly, afterall you can almost guarantee that thousands of COD fanboys will be pre-ordering Call of Duty: Ghosts as I type. But it does feel as if a change is occurring. This is the lowest amount of hype I can remember for a new COD title in years, probably dating back to Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare in 2008. Has the series finally hit a tipping point?

There could be a number of reasons for this, and the first that springs to mind is the annual rotation policy that Activision will forever stick to. Call of Duty might not suffer the same franchise fatigue that other properties do because it doesn't rely on narrative to sell games. It's generally considered an online, multiplayer experience these days, with a tedious single-player campaign thrown in for good measure. But that doesn't mean asking players for their hard-earned cash at the same time every year for pretty much the same game won't start to grate eventually.

It's also fair to point out that players could be focusing more on next-generation consoles right now, and they want to see what the new hardware can do before jumping on the COD bandwagon again. Ghosts will launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it'll also be available on the next Xbox and PlayStation 4. Will the game offer a significantly better experience on newer consoles, or should we just forget about any new modes and assume the only difference will be graphically? And will that be enough to satisfy the hardcore followers?

And then there are competitors to watch out for, namely Battlefield 4. EA wowed fans when it lifted the lid on the new installment to its popular war series, with a 17-minute trailer that showed some tremendous facial animations, voice acting and new gameplay features. There were signs that EA was investing in new ways to make Battlefield 4 the best it can be, while Activision is just happy to throw out another version of COD that should be okay while doing the bare minimum.

Pair these factors with the falling sales figures for last years Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and things suddenly don't seem as healthy as they once were. If Ghosts doesn't deliver at least a small portion of something resembling unique and innovative, it could be the lowest selling COD for years. Which begs the question, would Activision dare take a year off from doing a Call of Duty game to inspire some increased interest next time?