Growth continues in ”mature, established” Europe too, said Sportouch. Black Ops II could spur even more to join the Call of Duty banner. The ”extended console cycle” has boosted multiplayer.
Some publishers and studios bemoan how long the life of the current gen is as sales start dipping, but Activision love it for Call of Duty because of such established communities.
”Even with Modern Warfare 3, we are continuing to see growth of the franchise – specifically in new markets and also some mature, established markets in Europe. And we want to keep pushing the franchise in new directions,” Michael Sportouch told MCV in an interview. ”We’ve signed a Call of Duty partnership in China with Tencent, where we will grow the franchise with a free-to-play, micro-transaction game.”
”We certainly don’t think the growth is over and the growth could come from an actual retail game like Black Ops II.”
Sportouch has said a huge windfall for the series has been the longstanding feedback and data they get to further refine Call of Duty’s multiplayer experiences, aided by such an extended console cycle.
”We have benefitted from the extended console cycle but what we have really benefitted from, and I’m sorry to sound like a broken record, is this huge amount of feedback and data from the multiplayer backbone,” he continued. ”But yes, that helps us refine the experience, to understand what people like and how they play.”
”That’s an aspect of what’s been happening during this console title. The increase in connectivity on consoles worldwide has gone up while the consoles have been unchanged and that’s supported what we do in multiplayer,” added Activision UK & Ireland MD Peter Hepworth.
Call of Duty Elite has really capitalised on those advantages. ”It has only been in existence since the end of last year, but we are already honoured to have 12 million registered users and 2.3 million subscribers. We’ve been actively listening to the Call of Duty Elite community and taking that feedback on board,” said Sportouch.
Check out the full interview between Michael Sportouch, Peter Hepworth and MCV. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC November 13th.