Call of Duty: Vanguard was not the commercial success Activision hoped for, with the publisher now blaming the game's poor sales on its World War II setting.
In its latest annual earnings report, Activision Blizzard said that Call of Duty: Vanguard "didn't meet our expectations" and admits that its disappointing commercial performance was "mostly due to its own execution" of the game (thanks, Kotaku).
"The game's WWII setting didn't resonate with some members of our community," the report states, "and we didn't bring as much innovation to premium gameplay as we would have liked."
Activision goes on to say that it is addressing both of these issues (poor choice of settings and lack of innovation) in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the next mainline Call of Duty title due out later this year.
“We are working on the most ambitious plan in Call of Duty history, with over 3000 people currently working on the franchise and a return to the Modern Warfare framework that delivered our most successful Call of Duty title to date,” he says. The report. .
always excuses
Call of Duty: Vanguard certainly wasn't a huge success for Activision. Despite being the best-selling game of 2021, its sales fell by 36,1% compared to 2020's Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War. Its poor performance is said to have even encouraged Activision to break the cycle of Call of Duty yearly release date as publisher pushes Treyarch's entry back from 2023 to 2024.
However, for Activision to attribute Vanguard's poor sales to its WWII setting is a bit peculiar. Call of Duty: WW2 flew off the shelves when it released in 2017, with Activision even boasting that it sold twice as many copies as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare did when it launched. Given the sheer volume of video games and other media created on the conflict, it's a bit strange to think that gamers aren't interested in the setting.
Vanguard's lack of innovation might be a better explanation. In our Call of Duty: Vanguard review, we said that the "campaign mode ultimately falls flat when it comes to storytelling and gameplay," and we thought its multiplayer only offered the same. While its Zombies mode was a nice upgrade from what came before, it only offered one game mode at launch and couldn't sustain a tired franchise on its own.
Of course, Vanguard's launch was also marked by an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard. However, its poor performance didn't scare off Microsoft, which announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $69.000 billion earlier this year.