Activision: We're taking "Call of Duty back to its roots" with traditional combat gameplay

[Exterminator]

Activision has announced the next Call of Duty release will base itself on the game's original format, featuring boots on the ground gameplay and traditional combat. The decision is likely a response to the major backlash directed towards last year's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare title - for its controversial special flying and combat abilities that dominated the gaming experience.

At Activision Blizzard's fourth quarterly earnings call, the COO stated:

“In 2017, Activision will take Call of Duty back to its roots, and traditional combat will once again take center stage. This is what our dedicated community of Call of Duty players and Sledgehammer Games, developing this year’s title, are the most excited about.”

It has also been revealed that Sledgehammer Games are the developers behind this year's Call of Duty release. The team was behind two previous editions of the game; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Both of these titles proved massively popular, with Modern Warfare
3 enjoying 30.6 million total sales - making it the highest selling Call of Duty of all time.

A tweet by Sledgehammer Games confirmed this news:



Previously, Activision made gains in popularity by offering a remastered version of the iconic, boots on ground Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with the purchase of last year's title. This enabled gamers to decide between playing the futuristic Infinite Warfare or the classic Modern Warfare title. It seems Activision believes there to be plenty of potential in exploring classic gameplay - over its controversial, futuristic renditions - which might be all it needs to rejuvinate the game's popularity amongst the community.

Source: Charlie Intel via Ubergizmo

Thank God!!
I wonder if Battlefield 1 had any influence on this decision.

 

[In2an3_PpG]

Good decision by Activision.

You know I kind of miss WWII based call of duty. I hope the future brings me a new one.

 

[aragornnnn]

Well played Activision well played... that's what happens if you dont listen to your community.
I hope they finally learned their lesson now.

Anyway great decision, don't want to see more $$$ go down the drain

 

[Exterminator]

Battlefield 1 is a killer game.
No flying jet packs,futuristic maps,star wars suits,extreme bunny hopping. Just realistic game play with some actual (team)strategy.
Lets hope COD goes that route 100 % and gets rid of the ridiculous weapons,suits,and maps.
Otherwise I will not purchase another COD game.

 

[DracusNarcrym]

Finally.

Futuristic themes absolutely killed Call of Duty for me.

Dont' get me wrong, I do LOVE sci-fi stuff.

It's just that for some reason, Call of Duty's futuristic gameplay was horribly executed. It was neither innovative, nor as awe-inspiring as the futuristic combat gameplay of other games, such as Titanfall 2.

Granted, they had their experiment trying to reinvent the wheel for Call of Duty (and justifiably - it was the fanbase, after all, who were crying that "Call of Duty is the same s*** every year") - and this experiment failed. And the fans understood that, let games be what they are.

Rarely are such sudden innovations successful - or even desired. There's so many other parameters you can finetune in a game to make it more appealing with every release, than forcing new mechanics/gameplay.

A promising statement on Activision's part.