The huge player base for Call of Duty is ”remarkable” given how old the series is, said Hirshberg, but they ”don’t take anything for granted.” …just our money. Zing!
Infinity Ward and Treyarch using a leapfrog development cycle for Call of Duty lets them deliver every year, as the two studios compete to push things forward.
“The cadence of the releases seems to have found a nice equilibrium with people’s appetite. There’s demand and excitement each and every time out. Then people are playing throughout the year. We have our biggest community of players today,” Eric Hirshberg told Eurogamer.
“Right now there are more people playing Call of Duty today than ever, which is remarkable for a franchise that’s been around as long as Call of Duty has. But, we don’t take anything for granted.”
The two studio approach is the formula to their success.
“Having alternating studios is one of the secrets to the franchise’s success. You have different creative people who are strong willed and have minds of their own. Everyone gets what makes a great Call of Duty game. Treyarch and IW are the masters, and have built this thing. So, there’s a lot of common DNA from year to year.”
“But then people come in and want to top each other. There’s some healthy competition,” he continued. ”There’s a desire within the creative team to not do the same thing and not be stagnant, the same way there is in the player community. Overall it seems to be a good system.”
Call of Duty: Ghosts releases on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 November 5th. Xbox One and PS4 November. Recently EA Games boss Frank Gibeau said it was ”good for the industry” for Call of Duty and Battlefield to ‘fight’.