Whereas ”four or five years ago” any top 10 in a genre did well on console, now it’s ”concentrated on the top two” in each. Activision has responded.
”The shape of the gaming world is changing and you’re right, once it was all about console gaming,” said Activision Blizzard SVP Brian Ward in an interview.
”But console games market is changing. If you look at the charts today by genre, whereas four or five years ago having any title in the top 10 of any genre was doing well. And now that’s concentrated on the top two in each genre.”
”Fortunately we have two or three in each genre and we’ve trimmed our slate accordingly to get rid of the ones that were not in the top tier.” A recent-ish decision by Activision to ‘trim some fat’ was ditching True Crime: Hong Kong for not being good enough. The project has been picked up by Square Enix although it will need to drop the IP name.
“We’re focusing our new efforts on digital delivery. Call of Duty: Elite is something we’ve announced recently and that addresses the growing market shift towards social, casual and mobile gaming.” The future for console gaming is a social one, suggests Ward.
Elite supports career stats for Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3, cross-platform messaging, competitions, DLC delivery as well as social networking integration. It launches alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 November 8th and is from Beachhead Studio.
