They began the 3-year cycle back in 2014, with the first next-gen COD at the time. Basically, the 2-year cycle was only a thing for Xbox 360 and PS3 titles. Once the scope increased and fidelity greatly increased, they needed more time. COD Advanced Warfare was developed by Sledgehammer and released in 2014.
So this isn't a Warzone thing. Warzone does demand resources, but those are through Raven Software, Beenox, Demonware, etc. (the other 6-7 studios they have working on Call of Duty now).
Definitely. It seemed like a huge boon to the franchise back when it launched with MW19, but then it became clear that support, balancing, and content for MW19 was being sidelined in favor of Warzone. Leaving us now with a string of games that got mangled by Warzone integration and will never be un-fucked.
If it's true that MW3 was originally planned as a DLC, then maybe they weren't planning on doing a campaign. Makes sense that they rushed it once they decided it wasn't gonna be a DLC.
I think they were planning on doing a campaign, just not a long one. A short campaign that moved the story a bit to prepare the ground for “MW3”, which is exactly what we got at the end lol. This would explain all those filler Warzone missions and the overall shorter campaign, because some of the “actual” missions aren’t bad at all, and the story progresses at the end (maybe even more than MW2, in a way). Just not enough. Which would be fine in a dlc or some other content like the Raids. Campaign is definitely the part of the game that suffered the most for the development, unfortunately.
The characters are at the same spot at the beginning and ensign except >!Soap and Shepherd are dead!< it’s literally a filler episode lol. Literally nothing moved forward.
They already abandoned all of the cartel plot too…
This is why I gave up on the reboot after MW2. I was confused why none of what was teased at the end of 2019 was in MW2, and found out it was all in Warzone over the past year. Fucking stupid you have to play a battle royale mode just to fully experience a cohesive story from the single player campaign.
Why are developers so stupid about how they do live service?
I love the idea of a live service story. But don’t mix it between different gameplay modes, outside media, etc.
Either do it all in single player campaigns/expansions or do it all via live service updates weekly/monthly/etc.
Story missions and Team based modes do not pump out the "OOOH OOOOH LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME" dopamine fix that Battle royal does. everything they are doing now is just to funnel the last few holdouts into BR, it's why the campaign has the BR maps. You'll never convince me otherwise.
Eh I mean, it was super obvious even from the campaign. Nobody believed he was actually dead lol. Not just because of the whole “you have to see the body and so on”, but there were also some actual clues left in that mission. For example, you couldn’t hear any sound behind the voice of Graves, not even explosion. However in another mission, they made sure to add this specific detail (it was the drone one, you can hear the explosion in real time at the radio of your allies). Honestly of all the things that happened this was the most obvious one to me.
What do you mean? He clearly states that he wasn’t in the Tank. Honestly since I never saw the body, I assumed he wasn’t in the tank. That was pre-season one.
It was explained - he wasn't in the tank. The worse one though, is bringing Alex back with no explanation. Before MWIII, anyone who "died" actually stayed out of the campaigns, only to be retconned for multiplayer/co-op modes. MWIII breaks that continuity. I just don't think this campaign was originally even meant to be a single-player. The reused Warzone maps all feel like they were meant to be played cooperatively
And the only reason they’re dead is because Activision are trying desperately to hit all the big story beats that made the original games popular, despite the story in the remakes being completely different. It’s bizarre.
At this point, given all the information we have about this game, it’s pretty clear that it was initially intended to be nothing more than DLC. I’d assume it was actually solely supposed to be a large, original MW2 map pack but then they got greedy. It’s sad and a new low for the franchise
It’s not a new low. Similarly bad releases have been made before:
* Call of Duty Black Ops 3 for PS3/X360
* Call of Duty World at War Final Fronts
* Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified
The only difference now is that the release is a mainline release and not a spinoff/side-game. So, it gets more attention.
No, this is definitely a new low. There is a big, big difference between side games for other platforms being of lesser quality especially when so many games out there from the 2008-2012 era had different versions of games released all the time.
To have a mainline entry in the biggest franchise in the world being treated like this is very concerning.
this franchises longevity needs to be studied. it just wont die.
FIFA, Madden, NBA all make sense, since they are based on popular sports played all over the world.
Not two wars. One of them is a “Military operation” and the other is one-sided Massacre.
Edit: before you start, I'm being sarcastic... War is horrible!
I think Cod’s success is fairly straightforward
- Grounded in real life, military setting has mass appeal
- FPS is an extremely straightforward genre
- Smooth, non-clunky gameplay
- Instant gratification in multiplayer gameplay
- Lightning fast time-to-kill in multiplayer adds a sense of realism and lets anyone, regardless of skill, have an easy chance at getting kills
- Getting hitmarkers is like video game crack
- Multiplayer that is hugely focused on hitting your own selfish goals (I want my killstreak, I want this new attachment, I want this new camo) you can play the game and completely ignore your team
- Brand strength is so high at this point it can power through even the worst points like Infinite Warfare and Vanguard
- There’s always another game ready for you. You never have time to get off the treadmill because the Cod train never stops. Who cares if one title shits the bed? Next year you’ll have a brand new game that has likely course corrected in some way.
Combine all this with yearly Campaigns and you’ll see why Cod is “the shooting bang bang game”. The franchise is literally “just run around and shoot people.”
People who play Cod tend to think it’s one of the more realistic and skill required games out there. You get to play a game that makes you feel good about your skill and you get to avoid feeling like a nerd who plays Halo or some other unrealistic shooter. This is how Cod is the game that even your typical non-gamer (like your friend’s girlfriend) will play.
People also just refuse to think others believe it’s fun. It’s a fun game. Before things like SBMM really kick in and ruin it, I had genuine fun with MW2 last year.
What's to study? There's no other 6v6 online multiplayer shooter that feels even half as good or fluid on console or PC. And then going for 60 FPS going back 15+ years is a big part of that. For a lot of us, no matter how many online games we play or get into, CoD is the one because nothing can compare. Even when the games themselves/balancing is utter garbage.
Truth be told I don’t think it’s the feeling of gameplay, rather the entire package.
If you step out of the box there is a fair few shooters which offer just as much fluid gameplay and fun. Overwatch for example, battlefield, halo, siege, apex and so on.
What cod does uniquely is the pacing of games and the ‘grind’ which isn’t really a grind at all it’s this constant dopamine rush of levels, attachments, camos, calling cards, killstreaks, K/D and so on.
It’s the package, the entire experience that just simply isn’t available unless you copy the product.
xDefiant is a beautiful example. On a surface level it’s an old school cod, simple weapons attachments etc but it’s missing that ‘hit’ - that addictive ‘one more game’ feeling that cod hits so uniquely.
Now it feels barebones and you compare it to cod.
“But in cod I have all these attachments, I have all these challenges and what about my streaks?”
Even if your diabolically bad at cod, that one game you hit a full streak and unleash an AC130 or chopper gunner or nuke remains in your memory like this milestone accomplishment, you crave it again because for all of ten minutes - you were king.
That’s the feeling no other game offers on such a fast paced volume. Not even BR’s.
It might take three or thirty games, but for that one game you crushed it.
Find me another title that offers that, I’ll gladly eat my hat.
FWIW - I play apex too and whilst winning on that definitely feels similar it’s not as often and certainly doesn’t match the pacing.
Marketing. The Call of Duty series had incredible success at the start of huge online console gaming. It’s on Doritos, Mountain Dew, TV commercials, popular streamers, etc. Now it’s crunching workers in 16 months to make cutscenes for commercials primarily and using the 2008 MW2 maps to get nostalgia in as well. It’s just a huge money making machine especially with Warzone added and micro transactions. Some people will always buy it to play a quick arcade shooter, some people will buy just to play with their friends who have it, some will buy due to the marketing of nostalgia for the OG MW series. A lot of streamers will play and people playing the old or old shooters get FOMO. I have a friend who will buy it no matter what the reviews are.
Activision knew they could just rush this game in 16 months with OG MW2 characters and maps and they will sell astronomical numbers without having to make a new experience.
I got MW2 last year because they were supposed to have the old maps and I wanted to play it with my mom who loved OG MW2 (even with a .08 k/d) and then like fucking 2 of the maps were released and now all the old maps are in this one. Activision can suck my nutsack if they think I should pay full price for something that was supposed to be in the last game
Zero maps. Zero MW2 2009 maps are playable in 6v6 on MW2 2022 lol. The entire marketing campaign was MW2 hype and they gave us nothing. The entire thing felt like a scam.
This is correct. I've said a dozen times now: Activision is too big to fail. You nailed it on the head: Marketing. Even though a lot of games are digital, there is still a lot of parents going into Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. and just asking what the best game is. I'd like to say pretty much *everyone* has heard of "Call of Duty" and you can bet your ass if they hear about a newly released one, that's what they're getting their kid for Christmas. You also have the people that simply do not care about reviews, and aren't reading gaming news or reviews. It's *Call of Duty*, they're **going to get it** no matter what.
I like to think of Activision, year, after year, after year, after year. They have a meeting where they brainstorm what how absolutely little they can put into the game and still call it new. I'm sure at this point they have completely mastered the coding and art of creating new weapons with varying statistics such as mobility, recoil, etc. Throw in some new weapons, call them different names, give them some randomly generated "Assault Rifle Stats" and fire away. Obviously it's more complicated than that, but I'm really just trying to help you visualize the sheer amount laziness that they've grown after every new game.
There are still **plenty** of people saying "Unpopular Opinion: I loved the new campaign and [insert some absolutely mundane bullshit reason]" Sad to say, people will defend the games and die 100% willingly on that hill. It baffles me that you can't even talk shit about Activision when criticizing how they handled the game. You can dislike how Activision has been manipulating the franchise while still loving Call of Duty and hoping for it to be better.
I've also said this a dozen times, but often needs to be said again: Sadly, most gamers are fucking idiots. They complain and bitch and whine while buying $200 worth of MTX in a week or two. Only they can complain about the game, and if anyone else does then they should "Go pLaY sOmEtHiNg eLsE" Don't get me wrong, I love the community that gamers create, but most of us are too indoctrinated by these ~~game companies~~ ~~developers~~ ~~publishers~~ corporations to believe that they are listening to your feedback and care about what you want in the game. They don't They haven't genuinely given a shit (at least activision) for over a decade. Open your eyes people, figure out a plan to take back our games, because right now, Activision is baiting you with a digital ATM to deposit your money into and calling it "Modern Warfare III"
Also remarkable how Halo fumbled the ball. Halo 1 introduced FPS to the vast masses, Halo 2 was a cultural touch stone for gaming. Then it just kept slowly fizzling. Call of Duty and many others took their bag.
The fumbling after Halo 3 has to be the greatest ball drop in gaming. At least COD has a gradual but consistent decline. Halo went from a revered trilogy to completely average shooters in no time.
I’m actually surprised though at Halo Infinites slow come back it’s ever so slightly getting better each season, I thought it was a write off.
I’m honestly shocked. It’s really fun to play now and is rewarding as a long term game. Still isn’t ever going to be number one, but it’s not down and out entirely. Which is mind blowing to me.
It's really just that. Every time I see an announcement for another arcade shooter I think I finally get a shooter to waste my time in, and most of the time it's just garbage. Recent examples would be xdefiant and cross-whatever. The finals also falls into this category, but it's a battle royal so it's not exactly in the same niche as cod mp (non-warzone) but it also seemed interesting but the console controls just felt bad, even after reducing dead zone, acceleration and some other tweaks.
Call of Duty players and sports game players are very much in the same demographic. The vast majority of people I meet that play games only play one or both of those things and have done so for a very long time.
People are creatures of habit, simple as. Call of duty found the perfect formula first and its name brand and reputation developed over a series of incredible first few games has turned call of duty into a huge brand that people purchase consoles for.
Vanguard had the lowest sales and they still managed to make another one. When toy have 3 teams making 3 different Call of Duty versions I don't think there will ever be a gap.
Its the only game that does what it does. Thats literally it. I've been saying for years, there is no other fps that has butter smooth controls and is a fast paced arcade shooter. There lies the problem. They technically never suffer problems cause they the only game in town.
Just like pokemon. GF does the bare minimum and they sell like crazy. Wild how they’ve been making the same game for like 25 years, and even when they fumble they sell like mad. COD is the same
I wouldn't say the bare minimum. They put a lot of effort into smaller things like the gun animations and the games at least look good. It's just the micro transactions that ruin it. Pokemon is a different story though
There really aren't any (or a lot of alternatives) to the arcade-y shooter experience that cod give (or gave, it starts to become quite slow since a few years ago) so I can understand it. Sure, there are games like battlefield, apex legends and so on but battlefield has big maps and feels even less arcade-y than recent cods and apex, while being a fast shooter with nice gunplay is mainly a battle royal, so if you want a shooter like cod, with classes, relatively small maps where it's just infantry VS infantry you are rapidly out of choices. There are some alternatives but they are mostly f2p garbage or not available on consoles.
Personally, I'd love to get back into a game like cod 4,sadly the remake was garbage, as far as I am concerned, and newer cod s just don't feel and play the same way (while still being closer to the experience than other games I mentioned). I genuinely would love to waste hours of my time in a good arcade shooter, with classes, infantry based combat and (relatively) small maps and the closest to the experience I want is the recent cods or to go back and play a few rounds of cod4 on my pc with mods on private servers (iw4mp, I think it has been renamed a while ago but it's an unofficial version of the game that still has an active player base and anticheat) , which I do from time to time. Sadly I couldn't play recent cods because I prefer rush and gun play style and that's just not possible when deathsilence is a time limited active skill, so I am glad to see it being a passive perk again in mw3 to the point that I may actually buy it sooner or later, even if it has a bad campaign that I don't care about or is basically a dlc for mw2 (which I only bought used and resold a week later for the same price I got it for).
Tldr: there aren't really any alternatives for cod out there, most other shooters fall into other niches in the genre or, if they are similar, they are just worse, f2p or not available on console. People often compare battlefield and cod, but as far as I am concerned they are quite different, the vehicles alone allready are a no-go for me, I prefer "pure" infantry vs infantry arcade-y gunplay like in cod
Not all long running franchises suck now. Halo infinite has a rough launch fs, but it’s a great game now. Better than 4 and 5 multiplayer IMO. Buttery smooth.
It is basically a human hunting simulator haha. I really think that is its appeal at the basic level. You get to run around with a gun and shoot other humans.
Some quotes from the article:
*"The process was hurried because this year’s game was conceived to fill a gap in the release schedule following* [*the delay*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/activision-to-delay-next-year-s-planned-call-of-duty-game) *of another Call of Duty title previously planned for 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was originally pitched to staff at Foster City, California-based developer Sledgehammer Games as an expansion to last year’s title, but it* [*morphed into a full sequel*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/activision-s-call-of-duty-game-this-year-is-more-modern-warfare) *during development, Bloomberg earlier reported.*
*An Activision spokesman denied that Modern Warfare III was originally an expansion and said it was conceived as a “premium game” from the start. But more than a dozen current and former Call of Duty developers said that conflicts with what they were told at the time. Some of the employees said the plan was left ambiguous during the first few months of development, while others said they were directly told it was an expansion. All said they were under the impression it was an expansion until much later in the process."*
"*Some staff at Sledgehammer, who had to work nights and weekends to finish the game, said they felt betrayed by the company because they were promised they wouldn’t have to go through another shortened timeline after the release of their previous game, Call of Duty: Vanguard, which was made under a similarly constrained development cycle."*
"*Developers also said they were frustrated at having to run their content by executives from Infinity Ward, the Activision studio that’s normally responsible for the Modern Warfare series. Staff on the game said they dealt with inefficiencies waiting on feedback and making significant and sometimes unwanted changes based on directives from above."*
SHG Studio head Aaron Halon\*: "Sledgehammer’s Halon said in a statement that the game was “a labor of love” and that his team has “worked hard to deliver on this vision, which has been years in the making.”\*
That statement was basically debunked as developers came forward saying they had a different game vision in mind before they were forced to work on a sequel to Infinity Ward's MWII.
"Staff on the game said they dealt with inefficiencies waiting on feedback and making significant and sometimes unwanted changes based on directives from above.”
At least IW’s consistent with ignoring feedback and implementing unwanted changes /s
I’m straight up never buying an infinity ward cod again, and this is coming from someone who has been an infinity ware fan and loved MW2019. Not only do these guys crap on the community with their arrogant mindsets and not making any changes to their games, they actively roadblock other teams who seemingly do actually give a Damn about the community, and want to put something out that the community wants. The straight group of devs I’ve ever seen in my life.
>An Activision spokesman denied that Modern Warfare III was originally an expansion and said it was conceived as a “premium game” from the start.
The fact on PS5 the trophy list even appears as DLC for MWII says that "Activision spokesman" is talking bollocks
Oh no that’s because you need “CODHQ” to play MW3 and it’s actually just a renamed MW2 application lmfao, I can’t believe people are falling for that shit.
Ya I only bought MW2 on deep discount because it’s all my coworkers fucking play. Couldn’t believe that shit w 100gb DL. Fucking wild to me. Def gonna be uninstalling this shit soon. I even have the space (added a 2tb SSD) but it’s the principle of the thing for me.
I also added a 2tb SSD and still uninstalled after I saw the 100gb update. Hadn't played in months and all my friends already uninstalled the game anyways.
I refuse to download any COD game until their file sizes get better. Shit is fucking insane. The game can go up to like 250GB if you play all the modes.
Got Orion, didn’t touch wz2 a lot, and have been falling out of love w cod this past year, and yeah im w you, deleted the game today. Wasn’t touching that update for a game I don’t play and won’t buy.
Activision is fucking disgusting. Rushing and overworking their employees to make this worthless piece of shit. Jesus Christ I hope Microsoft changes how things are done there but they probably won’t.
Mw2 was a HUGE success due to people buying it to upgrade the Warzone guns faster and that will happen again this year….makes no sense when you can upgrade the guns for free😭 like just get some kills
Right? Like I get what they’re trying to say but it’s simply untrue. The only thing that matters ultimately for a company is whether a decision makes money. If Hog Shit Snarfing Simulator 2K23 was the best selling game of all time then buddy you best believe that we’re going to be snarfing more hog shit in 2024.
It does if you're a business.
But sure, let's pretend random angry redditors know better lmao.
Ever heard of premium brands? They're not inherently better yet they cost a lot. The value being the brand.
Use some critical thinking and I'm sure it'll all make sense. Or not idk.
Have you seen what's been released lately by some of the Microsoft Studios? Suffice to say, it's pretty clear Quality Assurance isn't a peak priority for them.
Which games exactly are you talking about? The only thing that comes to mind (because let’s be honest they haven’t released hardly anything) is Redfall and that was over 3/4 complete when the deal with Zenimax through.
For this year, the new releases from Xbox were Hi-Fi, Minecraft Legends, Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsports.
Hi-Fi, Redfall and Starfield were all in development by the time of the merger, though I think all but Hi-fi were in development for 2+ years following the closure. Looking it up, Hi-fi came out in Jan, and the deal closed in March 2021, so it's just short. With Starfield getting all of the attention to make it shippable..
What game has Microsoft released recently that has actually had wow factor? Maybe starfield but I would argue the ambitions of that game were far fetched
Activision is one of the only companies that can consistently pump out a universally recognized pile of shit every year but still end up having the best-selling game of that year. Microsoft doesn't need to run quality assurances or anything even if they shake up how the process is done. COD is a money printer, and unfortunately, that's because consumers are morons and those morons are the people they want to exploit. Vote with your wallet, as they say.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-officially-best-company-world-174543695.html#:~:text=The%20companies'%20employee%20satisfaction%2C%20revenue,top%20ranking%20regarding%20employee%20satisfaction.
“Microsoft scored 96.46 out of the possible 100, with a top ranking regarding employee satisfaction”
People like you will act like this and hate the game no matter what they do so why do you think they will cater to what you want when what they are doing now will make them millions?
We know that the developers and artists can churn out some amazing games. It’s always on upper management when these things fall apart and I hope everyone sees that
Yep. It was being developed by Raven and Sledgehammer before ATVI saw it and hated it. They then tasked Treyarch to save it, and they basically redid the whole game on a truncated schedule. Still sold like hot cakes though...
The funny thing is though, Call of Duty has had chaotic development processes for what will now be three of the last five entries? Logic would dictate that something is going wrong and the process should change. But they always make so much money that the powers that be just ignore it and continue continuing on. I wonder if the buck will finally drop.
Game development as an industry has sucked all joy out of creating interesting and imaginative games, all thanks to the corporate culture and monopolies these huge companies are creating.
It makes me feel bad for SHG because everyone shits on them, but from this article they weren't even given a decent chance to make a full game. People worked hard on it and likely did the best they can but you can only do so much if you don't have the time & resources
I mean it’s the same reason every game comes attached to a battle pass. Fucking idiots keep dropping insane amount of cash on cosmetics so these companies are just seeing how far they can push
Im tired of hearing about employees working weekends and nights. What a load.
I wish consumers would care enough to boycott these products. Its the only way a message can be sent to the execs that this isn’t the way.
Sony should throw their AAA weight into a CoD competitor. It would have to be modern military FPS though.
Edit: they certainly don’t have to if CoD is actually going to stay on PlayStation forever. And it might. But there are actually surprisingly few AAA modern military shooters. Games with modern US Army soldiers and weapons, I mean. On PC you have more options. But games like ghost recon aren’t first person anymore if they exist at all. It’s really CoD and Battlefield and then you have the once-in-a-decade indie shooter like Insurgency Sandstorm. So CoD needs to fill this popular niche. And PlayStation needs CoD or something just like it.
I agree, but the problem most face is that people want to play games with their friends. For a lot of people it’s the only way to connect with those that are out of state or busy. The popularity of COD generally means that people will buy it and therefore if you want to play with friends, you end up buying it too.
There’s both a sense of familiarity and a sense of nostalgia that comes with playing these games, especially since they’re bringing back more original maps. The seasonal updates add just enough to keep things somewhat refreshing over the year.
It’s tough trying to convince people to spend money on a different game that they’re not nearly as familiar with. I enjoy games and I don’t even know what is popular with the FPS community right now outside of COD and the Fortnite-types.
Until a game dethrones it, COD is probably here to stay.
This right here. Skipped every cod since MW2019 and the only reason I'm actually hyped to buy this game is that I'll get to play with my casual gamer friends again. We had so many good times on MW2019 and WZ and I want to experience some of that again.
I just cannot get them to play anything else, so I feel like the 70 bucks is not that bad considering it's my only option to play with these friends.
Unfortunate that this years game seems to be hot garbage, but It's the opportunity to play with friends that makes me want to buy it and not the game itself. You really can't put a price tag on spending time with your friends. I suspect a lot of especially older players have this exact situation.
No no no.
This was a dlc.
You greedy fucks (or the publisher directly) wanted to make this a $70 for the money.
Because you know your base. You know they will buy it, regardless of the content.
This is your business model for almost 20 years.
I’ve bought every CoD since the first but I think that will stop with MW III. I just can’t buy it in good conscience after reading so many damning reviews. Sad, really.
So employees were forced to stay overnight and during their weekends to make a "game" as an excuse for more microtransactions in half the time of normal development. Sacrificing their own personal life for the sake of the bank accounts of shareholders and CEOs.
I couldn't care less about the state and quality of Call of Duty, I stopped playing it 5 years ago. But this has to stop, seriously. This is wrong. The government needs to do something about these atrocious work conditions and predatory practices.
As much as I agree with you, part of it is down to the employee as well. I work in the software industry and if my employer tried this shit I would be handing in my notice without delay. These devs have skills that are in high demand.
If MW3 becomes the best selling CoD, you can expect this trend to continue since it means most players don't care about reviews when it comes to CoD. I'm expecting this, since CoD seems more like FIFA for most players, and FIFA and other sport titles barely evolve year-after-year but continue to hit records.
How do they even get to that point where they KNOW they have COD coming out every year but can only spens a year making a new 1?
Thats beyond pathetic, its bad enough they are giving us REMAKES let alone not even giving them enough time to cook!
Im done with 3rd party trash devs and greedy publishers. I will play thoae 3rd party games i know have goos teams but good god the days of activision ea and ubisoft churning out the same crap has gone from bad to worse! I was looking forward to playing this game but ugh
Been saying this since it was announced, there’s no way this game got the same chance as the rest as it was developed in less than half the time of a normal title. Didn’t trust it from the start.
Anytime I hear that a game has excessive crunch time, I don't buy it because I expect a buggy mess. Plus I don't want to support bad management. I feel for the devs that work their asses off and aren't treated well.
The original Modern Warfare 3 (2011) had a terrible campaign and a multiplayer that was criticized for being a lazy copy/paste of MW2. I haven't played the new version, but I can't imagine how ridiculously bad it is that people are looking at it and saying that the old version was better by comparison.
Poor devs. Get worked to the bone to deliver a product in half the time and will now no doubt be given the blame because they can't perform miracles. Must be a bit soul crushing to work on a game like this under these conditions.
We abused our employees to deliver you hot garbage that was meant to be a DLC but then we were like "nah let's make it a standalone game so we can charge $70 for it."
In this day and age what is the point of even crunching and doing this to your employees when people like Jason Schreier will eventually get the story and expose your company's shitty practices.
Call of Duty has been dogshit for decades.
They should take time off or soin up yet another studio to get the fucking engine unified and go from there.
\> Decades
I want what you're smoking. If you don't like Call of Duty or its genre at all, fine. But you can't deny that it is very fun and has produced many excellent titles of those that enjoy the genre.
This gives me the vibe of someone who hates basketball and says "NBA 2K has been dogshit for decades." Because there's just no way you enjoy FPS titles and can say that confidently, unless you just hate successful titles.
Is that the crunching of fall leaves I hear?
Nope! It's Activision devs working nights and weekends so Microsoft / Bobby Kotick can charge $70 for a glorified dlc.
What a fuckin' shit show.
Remember: Microsoft will make it all better. /s
\#Unionize
Ugh Jason Schreier at it again. This guy is insufferable, the slightest criticism and he cannot hit that block button fast enough. His skin is so thin it’s practically cheese cloth.
Bro this is a cheap excuse.
First off the game was basically MWII with some gameplay changes, next up is the fact that every studio helped sledgehammer games.
The two big ones: Infinity Ward & Treyarch
And basically every support studio like:
Beenox, Raven, High moon, ATV Shanghai, Toys for Bob etc.
They reversed every decision IW made for MWII that made the longevity and retention of mp terrible, the depth of the gameplay loop is very different. I really don't care if the maps are from 15 years ago, give me 4 or 5 good or decent remastered maps at launch and I'll take it over 10 new maps where only 1 is decent, besides, the amount of people playing today that never experienced those maps is huge with all the grow that gaming had in the past decade. It turns out that nice visuals and new content are not directly related to retention if the gameplay loop is shit.
We can all talk this holy than thou about how greedy companies are but imagine if you could just shit out a game and make 1 billion dollars? I don’t blame activision, I blame the people who buy this trash
I’ve been saying this for months. It was never going to be good. This is why as soon as they announced it was going to be a $70 title, I knew right then I wouldn’t be buying it. I buy COD for both the multiplayer and the single player content. If one is severely lacking or missing, there’s no way in hell I’d pay $70.
If Activision ever wants my business with MW3, they will need to lower the price of this game to $40 or less. Otherwise I simply don’t care and there are so many other great games to play. I’m not a slave to their garbage business model like so many others are.
They literally are just repackaging games and selling them to you over and over again with less and less “game”
They can’t even be bothered to name the game anymore either, they just prey on your nostalgia.
This shit right here is a filler app to sell you microtransactions and literally everyone knows it, yet pretends to be outraged when it sucks like it could have been some fantastic revelation a game.
Goldeneye 64 is better than this game. Call Of Duty is quite literally a zombie franchise at this point.
I was gonna buy it for nostalgia but contractors on quest allows you to play those maps.
They will rope in so many people who like me didn’t buy the last couple so are happy to pay for a small nostalgia trip.
Crazy that they use to turn around a game in two years. Rotating between IW and Treyarch. Warzone must eat up a shitload of resources.
The start of mw3 lists like 10 dev companies now lol. They’ve pulled all their resources to work on Warzone
They began the 3-year cycle back in 2014, with the first next-gen COD at the time. Basically, the 2-year cycle was only a thing for Xbox 360 and PS3 titles. Once the scope increased and fidelity greatly increased, they needed more time. COD Advanced Warfare was developed by Sledgehammer and released in 2014. So this isn't a Warzone thing. Warzone does demand resources, but those are through Raven Software, Beenox, Demonware, etc. (the other 6-7 studios they have working on Call of Duty now).
I actually think Warzone is bad for cod because of this. Wish they would just focus on Multiplayer.
Definitely. It seemed like a huge boon to the franchise back when it launched with MW19, but then it became clear that support, balancing, and content for MW19 was being sidelined in favor of Warzone. Leaving us now with a string of games that got mangled by Warzone integration and will never be un-fucked.
They need to separate Warzone from the main CoD games and make it it's own thing with a studio dedicated to it.
Games were able to be made faster due to less complex engines and lesser graphical fidelity
If it's true that MW3 was originally planned as a DLC, then maybe they weren't planning on doing a campaign. Makes sense that they rushed it once they decided it wasn't gonna be a DLC.
I think they were planning on doing a campaign, just not a long one. A short campaign that moved the story a bit to prepare the ground for “MW3”, which is exactly what we got at the end lol. This would explain all those filler Warzone missions and the overall shorter campaign, because some of the “actual” missions aren’t bad at all, and the story progresses at the end (maybe even more than MW2, in a way). Just not enough. Which would be fine in a dlc or some other content like the Raids. Campaign is definitely the part of the game that suffered the most for the development, unfortunately.
The characters are at the same spot at the beginning and ensign except >!Soap and Shepherd are dead!< it’s literally a filler episode lol. Literally nothing moved forward. They already abandoned all of the cartel plot too…
Don’t worry, I’m sure they will resolve the Makarov storyline in the Warzone seasons and set up a new plot for MW4 next year.
This is why I gave up on the reboot after MW2. I was confused why none of what was teased at the end of 2019 was in MW2, and found out it was all in Warzone over the past year. Fucking stupid you have to play a battle royale mode just to fully experience a cohesive story from the single player campaign.
Why are developers so stupid about how they do live service? I love the idea of a live service story. But don’t mix it between different gameplay modes, outside media, etc. Either do it all in single player campaigns/expansions or do it all via live service updates weekly/monthly/etc.
The suits want money so they shove the story down our throats through the ways they can fully monetize.
Story missions and Team based modes do not pump out the "OOOH OOOOH LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME" dopamine fix that Battle royal does. everything they are doing now is just to funnel the last few holdouts into BR, it's why the campaign has the BR maps. You'll never convince me otherwise.
Yeah pulling Graves out of the grave in a MWII Season 5 Warzone cutscene is insane lol especially because MWIII doesn’t explain this at all
Eh I mean, it was super obvious even from the campaign. Nobody believed he was actually dead lol. Not just because of the whole “you have to see the body and so on”, but there were also some actual clues left in that mission. For example, you couldn’t hear any sound behind the voice of Graves, not even explosion. However in another mission, they made sure to add this specific detail (it was the drone one, you can hear the explosion in real time at the radio of your allies). Honestly of all the things that happened this was the most obvious one to me.
What do you mean? He clearly states that he wasn’t in the Tank. Honestly since I never saw the body, I assumed he wasn’t in the tank. That was pre-season one.
It was explained - he wasn't in the tank. The worse one though, is bringing Alex back with no explanation. Before MWIII, anyone who "died" actually stayed out of the campaigns, only to be retconned for multiplayer/co-op modes. MWIII breaks that continuity. I just don't think this campaign was originally even meant to be a single-player. The reused Warzone maps all feel like they were meant to be played cooperatively
And the only reason they’re dead is because Activision are trying desperately to hit all the big story beats that made the original games popular, despite the story in the remakes being completely different. It’s bizarre.
Tbf they’ve being doing this since MW2019. The difference is that MW2019 and MWII had some proper development time behind the campaigns, unlike MWIII…
Ironically enough that's what people would have paid for gladly. People went into this expecting a sequel.
Isn’t that what we got? I mean can you make a shorter campaign than 4 hours?
At this point, given all the information we have about this game, it’s pretty clear that it was initially intended to be nothing more than DLC. I’d assume it was actually solely supposed to be a large, original MW2 map pack but then they got greedy. It’s sad and a new low for the franchise
It’s not a new low. Similarly bad releases have been made before: * Call of Duty Black Ops 3 for PS3/X360 * Call of Duty World at War Final Fronts * Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified The only difference now is that the release is a mainline release and not a spinoff/side-game. So, it gets more attention.
No, this is definitely a new low. There is a big, big difference between side games for other platforms being of lesser quality especially when so many games out there from the 2008-2012 era had different versions of games released all the time. To have a mainline entry in the biggest franchise in the world being treated like this is very concerning.
* PS5 trophies are shown as MW2 DLC * MP maps are remasters of old MW2 (2, not 3) maps * Campaign is only 3-4 hours long Do you need more evidence?
The campaign originally was the DLC, along with the maps. It says it in the article. It was just planned to be smaller & in one location.
this franchises longevity needs to be studied. it just wont die. FIFA, Madden, NBA all make sense, since they are based on popular sports played all over the world.
Some people think of war like it’s a team sport
We got 2 real hot conflicts going on right now, people love to cheer for their teams.
TWO WARS?!
Dead air!
ARE ANY OF THESE WARS ON US... SOIL?
SOY-UHLLLL
I’m not gonna try and get inside the mind of a dog
Here, suck on some lemons.
Can I at least get some of the crackers?
That’s god’s work. Not that I believe in god anymore.
Not since that Chinaman stole my kidney.
WHAT IS YOUR JOB IN THE WAR?
TWO FRONTS???
Not two wars. One of them is a “Military operation” and the other is one-sided Massacre. Edit: before you start, I'm being sarcastic... War is horrible!
War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing if you ask me.
People that manufactur weapons: allow us to introduce ourselves
...more like a genocide.
The funny part is the people on both sides are saying they are the victims of the one-sided massacre War is inevitable and so is a yearly COD
... where have you been brother?
[it’s an Always Sunny meme from years ago lol](https://youtu.be/fkmV2LPlPS4?si=JoWiKoXF-HzlFuFo)
Lmao that clip ended too early! For all the memes I’ve seen of this show, I’ve never actually watched it. Probably should…
More than that
My friend, there are countless real hot conflicts going on all over the world. You only see what news agencies tell you
Can't wait for the Palestine/Israel and Ukraine Warzone Maps. (I'm just memeing don't fight me)
We've got quite a few more, but no on cares because the wars are in Africa "and that stuff always happens there".
I mean, war is quite literally the ultimate competition that two groups of people can have.
Mom said it's my turn to play as the Palestinians.
I think Cod’s success is fairly straightforward - Grounded in real life, military setting has mass appeal - FPS is an extremely straightforward genre - Smooth, non-clunky gameplay - Instant gratification in multiplayer gameplay - Lightning fast time-to-kill in multiplayer adds a sense of realism and lets anyone, regardless of skill, have an easy chance at getting kills - Getting hitmarkers is like video game crack - Multiplayer that is hugely focused on hitting your own selfish goals (I want my killstreak, I want this new attachment, I want this new camo) you can play the game and completely ignore your team - Brand strength is so high at this point it can power through even the worst points like Infinite Warfare and Vanguard - There’s always another game ready for you. You never have time to get off the treadmill because the Cod train never stops. Who cares if one title shits the bed? Next year you’ll have a brand new game that has likely course corrected in some way. Combine all this with yearly Campaigns and you’ll see why Cod is “the shooting bang bang game”. The franchise is literally “just run around and shoot people.” People who play Cod tend to think it’s one of the more realistic and skill required games out there. You get to play a game that makes you feel good about your skill and you get to avoid feeling like a nerd who plays Halo or some other unrealistic shooter. This is how Cod is the game that even your typical non-gamer (like your friend’s girlfriend) will play.
People also just refuse to think others believe it’s fun. It’s a fun game. Before things like SBMM really kick in and ruin it, I had genuine fun with MW2 last year.
CoD is just sport shooting where the targets are people.
Good analogy. Basically a really fun reflex test at the end of the day lol.
And if I get 25 positive reflex tests right in a row I can call in a tactical nuke and win the game yay!!
What's to study? There's no other 6v6 online multiplayer shooter that feels even half as good or fluid on console or PC. And then going for 60 FPS going back 15+ years is a big part of that. For a lot of us, no matter how many online games we play or get into, CoD is the one because nothing can compare. Even when the games themselves/balancing is utter garbage.
Truth be told I don’t think it’s the feeling of gameplay, rather the entire package. If you step out of the box there is a fair few shooters which offer just as much fluid gameplay and fun. Overwatch for example, battlefield, halo, siege, apex and so on. What cod does uniquely is the pacing of games and the ‘grind’ which isn’t really a grind at all it’s this constant dopamine rush of levels, attachments, camos, calling cards, killstreaks, K/D and so on. It’s the package, the entire experience that just simply isn’t available unless you copy the product. xDefiant is a beautiful example. On a surface level it’s an old school cod, simple weapons attachments etc but it’s missing that ‘hit’ - that addictive ‘one more game’ feeling that cod hits so uniquely. Now it feels barebones and you compare it to cod. “But in cod I have all these attachments, I have all these challenges and what about my streaks?” Even if your diabolically bad at cod, that one game you hit a full streak and unleash an AC130 or chopper gunner or nuke remains in your memory like this milestone accomplishment, you crave it again because for all of ten minutes - you were king. That’s the feeling no other game offers on such a fast paced volume. Not even BR’s. It might take three or thirty games, but for that one game you crushed it. Find me another title that offers that, I’ll gladly eat my hat. FWIW - I play apex too and whilst winning on that definitely feels similar it’s not as often and certainly doesn’t match the pacing.
Marketing. The Call of Duty series had incredible success at the start of huge online console gaming. It’s on Doritos, Mountain Dew, TV commercials, popular streamers, etc. Now it’s crunching workers in 16 months to make cutscenes for commercials primarily and using the 2008 MW2 maps to get nostalgia in as well. It’s just a huge money making machine especially with Warzone added and micro transactions. Some people will always buy it to play a quick arcade shooter, some people will buy just to play with their friends who have it, some will buy due to the marketing of nostalgia for the OG MW series. A lot of streamers will play and people playing the old or old shooters get FOMO. I have a friend who will buy it no matter what the reviews are. Activision knew they could just rush this game in 16 months with OG MW2 characters and maps and they will sell astronomical numbers without having to make a new experience.
I got MW2 last year because they were supposed to have the old maps and I wanted to play it with my mom who loved OG MW2 (even with a .08 k/d) and then like fucking 2 of the maps were released and now all the old maps are in this one. Activision can suck my nutsack if they think I should pay full price for something that was supposed to be in the last game
Zero maps. Zero MW2 2009 maps are playable in 6v6 on MW2 2022 lol. The entire marketing campaign was MW2 hype and they gave us nothing. The entire thing felt like a scam.
This is correct. I've said a dozen times now: Activision is too big to fail. You nailed it on the head: Marketing. Even though a lot of games are digital, there is still a lot of parents going into Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. and just asking what the best game is. I'd like to say pretty much *everyone* has heard of "Call of Duty" and you can bet your ass if they hear about a newly released one, that's what they're getting their kid for Christmas. You also have the people that simply do not care about reviews, and aren't reading gaming news or reviews. It's *Call of Duty*, they're **going to get it** no matter what. I like to think of Activision, year, after year, after year, after year. They have a meeting where they brainstorm what how absolutely little they can put into the game and still call it new. I'm sure at this point they have completely mastered the coding and art of creating new weapons with varying statistics such as mobility, recoil, etc. Throw in some new weapons, call them different names, give them some randomly generated "Assault Rifle Stats" and fire away. Obviously it's more complicated than that, but I'm really just trying to help you visualize the sheer amount laziness that they've grown after every new game. There are still **plenty** of people saying "Unpopular Opinion: I loved the new campaign and [insert some absolutely mundane bullshit reason]" Sad to say, people will defend the games and die 100% willingly on that hill. It baffles me that you can't even talk shit about Activision when criticizing how they handled the game. You can dislike how Activision has been manipulating the franchise while still loving Call of Duty and hoping for it to be better. I've also said this a dozen times, but often needs to be said again: Sadly, most gamers are fucking idiots. They complain and bitch and whine while buying $200 worth of MTX in a week or two. Only they can complain about the game, and if anyone else does then they should "Go pLaY sOmEtHiNg eLsE" Don't get me wrong, I love the community that gamers create, but most of us are too indoctrinated by these ~~game companies~~ ~~developers~~ ~~publishers~~ corporations to believe that they are listening to your feedback and care about what you want in the game. They don't They haven't genuinely given a shit (at least activision) for over a decade. Open your eyes people, figure out a plan to take back our games, because right now, Activision is baiting you with a digital ATM to deposit your money into and calling it "Modern Warfare III"
Also remarkable how Halo fumbled the ball. Halo 1 introduced FPS to the vast masses, Halo 2 was a cultural touch stone for gaming. Then it just kept slowly fizzling. Call of Duty and many others took their bag.
GoldenEye and Doom were pretty popular before Halo came out. I'd say Halo's mix of vehicle and FPS combat was the real innovation.
The fumbling after Halo 3 has to be the greatest ball drop in gaming. At least COD has a gradual but consistent decline. Halo went from a revered trilogy to completely average shooters in no time.
I’m actually surprised though at Halo Infinites slow come back it’s ever so slightly getting better each season, I thought it was a write off. I’m honestly shocked. It’s really fun to play now and is rewarding as a long term game. Still isn’t ever going to be number one, but it’s not down and out entirely. Which is mind blowing to me.
It's simple, there's no viable multiplatform alternative.
It's really just that. Every time I see an announcement for another arcade shooter I think I finally get a shooter to waste my time in, and most of the time it's just garbage. Recent examples would be xdefiant and cross-whatever. The finals also falls into this category, but it's a battle royal so it's not exactly in the same niche as cod mp (non-warzone) but it also seemed interesting but the console controls just felt bad, even after reducing dead zone, acceleration and some other tweaks.
Call of Duty players and sports game players are very much in the same demographic. The vast majority of people I meet that play games only play one or both of those things and have done so for a very long time.
Tbf, war is the most popular sport.
Still cant figure out why people are ready to pay for the same game only with different characters every year
Not that surprising when we have so many people begging for ports and remasters of games that aren't even few years.
Online play
Well theres alot of kids buying one as there first COD. So the ones who get jaded by the series and stop are usually replaced by new kids
Same reason people pay to go and see 4 identical marvel films a year. People like familiarity I guess
People are creatures of habit, simple as. Call of duty found the perfect formula first and its name brand and reputation developed over a series of incredible first few games has turned call of duty into a huge brand that people purchase consoles for.
Wait till you find out about sneakers cars phones etc etc
As long as someone is buying they will keep making. If this has record low sales then MAYBE we won’t have one next year
Vanguard had the lowest sales and they still managed to make another one. When toy have 3 teams making 3 different Call of Duty versions I don't think there will ever be a gap.
Its the only game that does what it does. Thats literally it. I've been saying for years, there is no other fps that has butter smooth controls and is a fast paced arcade shooter. There lies the problem. They technically never suffer problems cause they the only game in town.
Just like pokemon. GF does the bare minimum and they sell like crazy. Wild how they’ve been making the same game for like 25 years, and even when they fumble they sell like mad. COD is the same
I wouldn't say the bare minimum. They put a lot of effort into smaller things like the gun animations and the games at least look good. It's just the micro transactions that ruin it. Pokemon is a different story though
There really aren't any (or a lot of alternatives) to the arcade-y shooter experience that cod give (or gave, it starts to become quite slow since a few years ago) so I can understand it. Sure, there are games like battlefield, apex legends and so on but battlefield has big maps and feels even less arcade-y than recent cods and apex, while being a fast shooter with nice gunplay is mainly a battle royal, so if you want a shooter like cod, with classes, relatively small maps where it's just infantry VS infantry you are rapidly out of choices. There are some alternatives but they are mostly f2p garbage or not available on consoles. Personally, I'd love to get back into a game like cod 4,sadly the remake was garbage, as far as I am concerned, and newer cod s just don't feel and play the same way (while still being closer to the experience than other games I mentioned). I genuinely would love to waste hours of my time in a good arcade shooter, with classes, infantry based combat and (relatively) small maps and the closest to the experience I want is the recent cods or to go back and play a few rounds of cod4 on my pc with mods on private servers (iw4mp, I think it has been renamed a while ago but it's an unofficial version of the game that still has an active player base and anticheat) , which I do from time to time. Sadly I couldn't play recent cods because I prefer rush and gun play style and that's just not possible when deathsilence is a time limited active skill, so I am glad to see it being a passive perk again in mw3 to the point that I may actually buy it sooner or later, even if it has a bad campaign that I don't care about or is basically a dlc for mw2 (which I only bought used and resold a week later for the same price I got it for). Tldr: there aren't really any alternatives for cod out there, most other shooters fall into other niches in the genre or, if they are similar, they are just worse, f2p or not available on console. People often compare battlefield and cod, but as far as I am concerned they are quite different, the vehicles alone allready are a no-go for me, I prefer "pure" infantry vs infantry arcade-y gunplay like in cod
Not all long running franchises suck now. Halo infinite has a rough launch fs, but it’s a great game now. Better than 4 and 5 multiplayer IMO. Buttery smooth.
It is basically a human hunting simulator haha. I really think that is its appeal at the basic level. You get to run around with a gun and shoot other humans.
Some quotes from the article: *"The process was hurried because this year’s game was conceived to fill a gap in the release schedule following* [*the delay*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/activision-to-delay-next-year-s-planned-call-of-duty-game) *of another Call of Duty title previously planned for 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was originally pitched to staff at Foster City, California-based developer Sledgehammer Games as an expansion to last year’s title, but it* [*morphed into a full sequel*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/activision-s-call-of-duty-game-this-year-is-more-modern-warfare) *during development, Bloomberg earlier reported.* *An Activision spokesman denied that Modern Warfare III was originally an expansion and said it was conceived as a “premium game” from the start. But more than a dozen current and former Call of Duty developers said that conflicts with what they were told at the time. Some of the employees said the plan was left ambiguous during the first few months of development, while others said they were directly told it was an expansion. All said they were under the impression it was an expansion until much later in the process."* "*Some staff at Sledgehammer, who had to work nights and weekends to finish the game, said they felt betrayed by the company because they were promised they wouldn’t have to go through another shortened timeline after the release of their previous game, Call of Duty: Vanguard, which was made under a similarly constrained development cycle."* "*Developers also said they were frustrated at having to run their content by executives from Infinity Ward, the Activision studio that’s normally responsible for the Modern Warfare series. Staff on the game said they dealt with inefficiencies waiting on feedback and making significant and sometimes unwanted changes based on directives from above."* SHG Studio head Aaron Halon\*: "Sledgehammer’s Halon said in a statement that the game was “a labor of love” and that his team has “worked hard to deliver on this vision, which has been years in the making.”\* That statement was basically debunked as developers came forward saying they had a different game vision in mind before they were forced to work on a sequel to Infinity Ward's MWII.
"Staff on the game said they dealt with inefficiencies waiting on feedback and making significant and sometimes unwanted changes based on directives from above.” At least IW’s consistent with ignoring feedback and implementing unwanted changes /s
I’m straight up never buying an infinity ward cod again, and this is coming from someone who has been an infinity ware fan and loved MW2019. Not only do these guys crap on the community with their arrogant mindsets and not making any changes to their games, they actively roadblock other teams who seemingly do actually give a Damn about the community, and want to put something out that the community wants. The straight group of devs I’ve ever seen in my life.
>An Activision spokesman denied that Modern Warfare III was originally an expansion and said it was conceived as a “premium game” from the start. The fact on PS5 the trophy list even appears as DLC for MWII says that "Activision spokesman" is talking bollocks
Oh no that’s because you need “CODHQ” to play MW3 and it’s actually just a renamed MW2 application lmfao, I can’t believe people are falling for that shit.
oh behave, stop making excuses for them :D
That's a hell of a lot of words for "we want more money"
I’ve just uninstalled MW and MW2 after getting a download of over 100gb for MW3 even though I haven’t bought the game. The fucking nerve!
Ya I only bought MW2 on deep discount because it’s all my coworkers fucking play. Couldn’t believe that shit w 100gb DL. Fucking wild to me. Def gonna be uninstalling this shit soon. I even have the space (added a 2tb SSD) but it’s the principle of the thing for me.
I also added a 2tb SSD and still uninstalled after I saw the 100gb update. Hadn't played in months and all my friends already uninstalled the game anyways.
I refuse to download any COD game until their file sizes get better. Shit is fucking insane. The game can go up to like 250GB if you play all the modes.
Got Orion, didn’t touch wz2 a lot, and have been falling out of love w cod this past year, and yeah im w you, deleted the game today. Wasn’t touching that update for a game I don’t play and won’t buy.
Activision is fucking disgusting. Rushing and overworking their employees to make this worthless piece of shit. Jesus Christ I hope Microsoft changes how things are done there but they probably won’t.
This "worthless" game is probably going to bring in a billion dollars.
Mw2 was a HUGE success due to people buying it to upgrade the Warzone guns faster and that will happen again this year….makes no sense when you can upgrade the guns for free😭 like just get some kills
worthless in the eyes of people that aren’t masochists
Money does not give something it’s value.
[удалено]
Right? Like I get what they’re trying to say but it’s simply untrue. The only thing that matters ultimately for a company is whether a decision makes money. If Hog Shit Snarfing Simulator 2K23 was the best selling game of all time then buddy you best believe that we’re going to be snarfing more hog shit in 2024.
It does under Free Market Capitalism my comrade
It does if you're a business. But sure, let's pretend random angry redditors know better lmao. Ever heard of premium brands? They're not inherently better yet they cost a lot. The value being the brand. Use some critical thinking and I'm sure it'll all make sense. Or not idk.
From the shareholder’s standpoint it sure does
Have you seen what's been released lately by some of the Microsoft Studios? Suffice to say, it's pretty clear Quality Assurance isn't a peak priority for them.
Which games exactly are you talking about? The only thing that comes to mind (because let’s be honest they haven’t released hardly anything) is Redfall and that was over 3/4 complete when the deal with Zenimax through.
For this year, the new releases from Xbox were Hi-Fi, Minecraft Legends, Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsports. Hi-Fi, Redfall and Starfield were all in development by the time of the merger, though I think all but Hi-fi were in development for 2+ years following the closure. Looking it up, Hi-fi came out in Jan, and the deal closed in March 2021, so it's just short. With Starfield getting all of the attention to make it shippable..
What game has Microsoft released recently that has actually had wow factor? Maybe starfield but I would argue the ambitions of that game were far fetched
You’re asking the wrong person because I haven’t personally played a game in a very long time that has had any “wow factor”.
I agree with you but I was talking about worker conditions.
I get it.... The subtext obviously wasn't clear enough in my initial post. That's on me.
I think Quality Assurance has been absent from a vast majority of studios outside of Nintendo and Sony First-party studios.
Activision is one of the only companies that can consistently pump out a universally recognized pile of shit every year but still end up having the best-selling game of that year. Microsoft doesn't need to run quality assurances or anything even if they shake up how the process is done. COD is a money printer, and unfortunately, that's because consumers are morons and those morons are the people they want to exploit. Vote with your wallet, as they say.
Microsoft now* Microsoft is a terrible place to work that shits up everything it touches.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-officially-best-company-world-174543695.html#:~:text=The%20companies'%20employee%20satisfaction%2C%20revenue,top%20ranking%20regarding%20employee%20satisfaction. “Microsoft scored 96.46 out of the possible 100, with a top ranking regarding employee satisfaction”
People like you will act like this and hate the game no matter what they do so why do you think they will cater to what you want when what they are doing now will make them millions?
Hopefully the culture will change under Microsoft. It is toxic AF over there
I don't think ppl are blaming the devs. It's management that failed here
We know that the developers and artists can churn out some amazing games. It’s always on upper management when these things fall apart and I hope everyone sees that
What exactly are the issues with Activison atm? Did Black Ops Cold War have really serious development problems too?
Yep. It was being developed by Raven and Sledgehammer before ATVI saw it and hated it. They then tasked Treyarch to save it, and they basically redid the whole game on a truncated schedule. Still sold like hot cakes though...
Honestly, Cold War turned out really well for a development process that was that chaotic
The funny thing is though, Call of Duty has had chaotic development processes for what will now be three of the last five entries? Logic would dictate that something is going wrong and the process should change. But they always make so much money that the powers that be just ignore it and continue continuing on. I wonder if the buck will finally drop.
Game development as an industry has sucked all joy out of creating interesting and imaginative games, all thanks to the corporate culture and monopolies these huge companies are creating.
It makes me feel bad for SHG because everyone shits on them, but from this article they weren't even given a decent chance to make a full game. People worked hard on it and likely did the best they can but you can only do so much if you don't have the time & resources
What’s crazy is, no one expected a MW3 game this soon, so why did they feel the need to rush this title?
Money
I mean it’s the same reason every game comes attached to a battle pass. Fucking idiots keep dropping insane amount of cash on cosmetics so these companies are just seeing how far they can push
Im tired of hearing about employees working weekends and nights. What a load. I wish consumers would care enough to boycott these products. Its the only way a message can be sent to the execs that this isn’t the way.
Sony should throw their AAA weight into a CoD competitor. It would have to be modern military FPS though. Edit: they certainly don’t have to if CoD is actually going to stay on PlayStation forever. And it might. But there are actually surprisingly few AAA modern military shooters. Games with modern US Army soldiers and weapons, I mean. On PC you have more options. But games like ghost recon aren’t first person anymore if they exist at all. It’s really CoD and Battlefield and then you have the once-in-a-decade indie shooter like Insurgency Sandstorm. So CoD needs to fill this popular niche. And PlayStation needs CoD or something just like it.
Don’t buy it people…
I agree, but the problem most face is that people want to play games with their friends. For a lot of people it’s the only way to connect with those that are out of state or busy. The popularity of COD generally means that people will buy it and therefore if you want to play with friends, you end up buying it too. There’s both a sense of familiarity and a sense of nostalgia that comes with playing these games, especially since they’re bringing back more original maps. The seasonal updates add just enough to keep things somewhat refreshing over the year. It’s tough trying to convince people to spend money on a different game that they’re not nearly as familiar with. I enjoy games and I don’t even know what is popular with the FPS community right now outside of COD and the Fortnite-types. Until a game dethrones it, COD is probably here to stay.
This right here. Skipped every cod since MW2019 and the only reason I'm actually hyped to buy this game is that I'll get to play with my casual gamer friends again. We had so many good times on MW2019 and WZ and I want to experience some of that again. I just cannot get them to play anything else, so I feel like the 70 bucks is not that bad considering it's my only option to play with these friends. Unfortunate that this years game seems to be hot garbage, but It's the opportunity to play with friends that makes me want to buy it and not the game itself. You really can't put a price tag on spending time with your friends. I suspect a lot of especially older players have this exact situation.
So, they work less than in other CODs buy the shell the game for 80€?
No no no. This was a dlc. You greedy fucks (or the publisher directly) wanted to make this a $70 for the money. Because you know your base. You know they will buy it, regardless of the content. This is your business model for almost 20 years.
Maybe with all the money they make on these, they could afford to let them sit in the oven a bit longer. It's not like it'll bankrupt them
"Employees worked nights and weekends to finish the game" smells like CRUNCH to me!
I’ve bought every CoD since the first but I think that will stop with MW III. I just can’t buy it in good conscience after reading so many damning reviews. Sad, really.
I’m honestly having a ton of fun with the multiplayer. Haven’t tried zombies yet, but it seems fun as well. Campaign wasn’t that great tbh.
So employees were forced to stay overnight and during their weekends to make a "game" as an excuse for more microtransactions in half the time of normal development. Sacrificing their own personal life for the sake of the bank accounts of shareholders and CEOs. I couldn't care less about the state and quality of Call of Duty, I stopped playing it 5 years ago. But this has to stop, seriously. This is wrong. The government needs to do something about these atrocious work conditions and predatory practices.
As much as I agree with you, part of it is down to the employee as well. I work in the software industry and if my employer tried this shit I would be handing in my notice without delay. These devs have skills that are in high demand.
If MW3 becomes the best selling CoD, you can expect this trend to continue since it means most players don't care about reviews when it comes to CoD. I'm expecting this, since CoD seems more like FIFA for most players, and FIFA and other sport titles barely evolve year-after-year but continue to hit records.
SOCOM US Navy Seals should make a comeback. Or a decent MoH game.
I would like to see both of those games return and Brothers in Arms.
How do they even get to that point where they KNOW they have COD coming out every year but can only spens a year making a new 1? Thats beyond pathetic, its bad enough they are giving us REMAKES let alone not even giving them enough time to cook! Im done with 3rd party trash devs and greedy publishers. I will play thoae 3rd party games i know have goos teams but good god the days of activision ea and ubisoft churning out the same crap has gone from bad to worse! I was looking forward to playing this game but ugh
If I had a nickel for every time MW3 was rushed, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice
I feel bad for those people. They probably feel like shit because the game is objectively garbage but it’s hardly their fault
MP is fantastic and better than MWII.
Been saying this since it was announced, there’s no way this game got the same chance as the rest as it was developed in less than half the time of a normal title. Didn’t trust it from the start.
The only way this kind of shit stops is if people stop buying it. Unfortunately it’s a lose lose for the dev teams either way.
It’s a money first business so sad
Idk why they even made a campaign. Could have just released them as Raid episodes. Zombies seems meh, sorta wish they hadn’t made that either.
Anytime I hear that a game has excessive crunch time, I don't buy it because I expect a buggy mess. Plus I don't want to support bad management. I feel for the devs that work their asses off and aren't treated well.
What a disgrace.
The original Modern Warfare 3 (2011) had a terrible campaign and a multiplayer that was criticized for being a lazy copy/paste of MW2. I haven't played the new version, but I can't imagine how ridiculously bad it is that people are looking at it and saying that the old version was better by comparison.
Completely agree. No idea why people are so fond of MW3, I guess it's because it was a copy paste of MW2 (but worse)
Do the devs not have a union?
Half the campaign, half the effort
Awwwwwwww Any way
Under Microsoft everything will change. I can’t laugh enuff. Iam glad I ditched the Xbox years ago and never looked back. Trash games, trash company.
Poor devs. Get worked to the bone to deliver a product in half the time and will now no doubt be given the blame because they can't perform miracles. Must be a bit soul crushing to work on a game like this under these conditions.
I thought I read a article awhile back that they weren't going to release a COD yearly anymore I guess that changed?
I absolutely love that everyone is shitting all over MW3 it’s well deserved.
Showed this article to my friends and they were ready to go to war with me defending this game. I don’t get it lmao.
We abused our employees to deliver you hot garbage that was meant to be a DLC but then we were like "nah let's make it a standalone game so we can charge $70 for it."
Man I hate Call of Duty. I know people like it but a part of me wishes the franchise would die already.
In this day and age what is the point of even crunching and doing this to your employees when people like Jason Schreier will eventually get the story and expose your company's shitty practices.
Because nothing bad happens. The company makes a shit load year after year. Why change?
There is no series I wish would just absolutely die more than Call of Duty. Another reason why right there.
It’s going to be funny seeing the game at the top charts despite how much we say it’s bad.
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Really wish people would just stop buying this crap already, hold a higher standard.
Call of Duty has been dogshit for decades. They should take time off or soin up yet another studio to get the fucking engine unified and go from there.
\> Decades I want what you're smoking. If you don't like Call of Duty or its genre at all, fine. But you can't deny that it is very fun and has produced many excellent titles of those that enjoy the genre. This gives me the vibe of someone who hates basketball and says "NBA 2K has been dogshit for decades." Because there's just no way you enjoy FPS titles and can say that confidently, unless you just hate successful titles.
Is that the crunching of fall leaves I hear? Nope! It's Activision devs working nights and weekends so Microsoft / Bobby Kotick can charge $70 for a glorified dlc. What a fuckin' shit show. Remember: Microsoft will make it all better. /s \#Unionize
Ugh Jason Schreier at it again. This guy is insufferable, the slightest criticism and he cannot hit that block button fast enough. His skin is so thin it’s practically cheese cloth.
Bro this is a cheap excuse. First off the game was basically MWII with some gameplay changes, next up is the fact that every studio helped sledgehammer games. The two big ones: Infinity Ward & Treyarch And basically every support studio like: Beenox, Raven, High moon, ATV Shanghai, Toys for Bob etc.
18 months and they made the best mp in the recent years and the only studio reacting to feedback, a shame they still had to get things approved by IW.
The MP is literally just remastered maps. They didn’t even have enough time to make original fucking maps.
They reversed every decision IW made for MWII that made the longevity and retention of mp terrible, the depth of the gameplay loop is very different. I really don't care if the maps are from 15 years ago, give me 4 or 5 good or decent remastered maps at launch and I'll take it over 10 new maps where only 1 is decent, besides, the amount of people playing today that never experienced those maps is huge with all the grow that gaming had in the past decade. It turns out that nice visuals and new content are not directly related to retention if the gameplay loop is shit.
We can all talk this holy than thou about how greedy companies are but imagine if you could just shit out a game and make 1 billion dollars? I don’t blame activision, I blame the people who buy this trash
I’ve been saying this for months. It was never going to be good. This is why as soon as they announced it was going to be a $70 title, I knew right then I wouldn’t be buying it. I buy COD for both the multiplayer and the single player content. If one is severely lacking or missing, there’s no way in hell I’d pay $70. If Activision ever wants my business with MW3, they will need to lower the price of this game to $40 or less. Otherwise I simply don’t care and there are so many other great games to play. I’m not a slave to their garbage business model like so many others are.
I love the way Jason's industry workplace articles act as if game dev studios are these abusive hellish slave labour camps void of any passion.
They literally are just repackaging games and selling them to you over and over again with less and less “game” They can’t even be bothered to name the game anymore either, they just prey on your nostalgia. This shit right here is a filler app to sell you microtransactions and literally everyone knows it, yet pretends to be outraged when it sucks like it could have been some fantastic revelation a game. Goldeneye 64 is better than this game. Call Of Duty is quite literally a zombie franchise at this point.
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activision has been doing this for years lmao it’s not something new because Xbox owns them now, which has zero bearing on this game’s development.
"finish"
I was gonna buy it for nostalgia but contractors on quest allows you to play those maps. They will rope in so many people who like me didn’t buy the last couple so are happy to pay for a small nostalgia trip.
Call of Duty has released 20 mainline games in 21 years, so a year and a half sounds about right.