Black Ops 2 and the future of Call of Duty

November 14th, 2012, 01:22 Posted By: wraggster

Right now, few companies do fan service quite like Activision-Blizzard, but then few companies have audiences as passionate as those for Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
The UK launch of Mists of Pandaria was a timely reminder of the power that the industry's biggest brands hold over their acolytes. In the midst of retail woes, declining subscriber figures, and widespread concern over the long-term viability of the subscription model, Blizzard's MMO drew hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fans to the streets of London, standing in line for hours to attend an event for a game that most of them had already purchased online. Only a small handful of the industry's products inspire such enthusiasm, and Activision-Blizzard has at least two of that select group.
The other, of course, is Call of Duty, though the line outside the Oxford Street branch of HMV for the launch of Black Ops II is less impressive than that for Mists of Pandaria by an order of magnitude. Not that it matters too much, of course: even if Black Ops II doesn't break records like its predecessor, it's certain to generate more revenue and column inches than anything else released this year, Pandaria included.
And if you're looking for fan devotion, it's sitting in a tent at the very front of the queue. Taylor Pelling, 19, has been waiting for the big moment since Wednesday, a full six days before I approach him to discuss the game for which he is putting his life on hold. Evidently, his sacrifice is less for Call of Duty and more for the studio that the series' fans once snubbed: Treyarch.
"Taylor Pelling has been waiting for the big moment since Wednesday, a full six days before I approach him to discuss the game for which he is putting his life on hold"

“For me, it feels like Treyarch always try to bring something new to the table, whereas Infinity Ward just rehashes old designs,” he says. “Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Infinity Ward. I bought Modern Warfare 3 and returned it two days later - I didn't like it, so I went back to World At War and Black Ops.”
For Taylor, the key distinction is in the multiplayer. When it was first handed half of the Call of Duty franchise, Treyarch was treated with no small measure of suspicion by die-hard followers of Infinity Ward. That has changed. The fact that Black Ops is still more popular online than Modern Warfare 3 - a game released a full year later - is testament to how much fans have warmed to the one-time interloper. Treyarch not only added the enormously popular zombies mode to the mix, it has also proved more consistently innovative in the franchise's all-important multiplayer modes.
“The times when I play campaign are the times when my internet goes down - that's it,” says Pelling. “I go straight to multiplayer.”
This is a more provocative point than it may first appear. When online play is your only focus - as it is for so many lining up for Call of Duty - the need for annual sequels diminishes. If Black Ops II fails to find the right mix, as Modern Warfare 3 did, Taylor will have no hesitation in returning to Black Ops post haste, with only the absence of any new map packs to deter him from doing so - a factor, it should be noted, that has as much to do with Activision's product strategy as it does the needs and desires of Call of Duty players.
Indeed, Taylor tells me that he wouldn't mind if the campaign disappeared altogether, and while not everyone would agree with his view, the overwhelming majority of people here tonight aren't among them.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...f-call-of-duty

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