Cognition Dissemination: The Return of World War Shooters
If you’ve been playing video games for over a decade, you’re likely aware of how popular World War-based first-person shooters used to be — and games based on the Vietnam war, to a lesser extent. Franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Brothers in Arms used such settings for multiple installments, games which contained linear story-based campaigns and competitive multiplayer modes and featured settings and weaponry that existed around the time. Eventually, however, the audience became tired of them, as reflected in their reception and sales midway through the last console generation. The sheer number of copycats released around the time only accelerated this phenomenon, especially since many of them weren’t any good.
That led to developers moving to modern warfare settings, primarily started by the aptly-named Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Eventually, Battlefield and the rebooted Medal of Honor franchise adopted similar settings, and the large customer base for war-based first-person shooters rewarded them with some of the best sales video games could receive — CoD especially. The concepts for these games didn’t wear thin as fast as the aforementioned historical war-based titles thanks to the lack of competition, as ever-increasing budgets for individual games priced out the competition. The lone exception was 2012’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which put the franchise on ice less because of competition (though that was part of it) and more due to the game being unpolished.
If the competition wasn’t priced out before, they were when the settings shifted to future warfare. It was around this time when CoD games started featuring big-name talent and likenesses of actors like Kevin Spacey, Jeff Goldblum, and Ron Perlman, inflating their budgets even further.
But this was only prolonging the inevitable. If trends continue for long enough, the audience will eventually tire of them, and this happened with all three aforementioned franchises. Signs that the modern and future warfare trends were wearing thin started when CoD sales started falling after Modern Warfare 3. But they didn’t reach a point where Activision needed to start worrying until Infinite Warfare provided the lowest sales for the franchise in a while. Its sales were still good, and the reception from those who played it was mostly favorable, but Activision realized they needed another change of direction.
In a twist, they were beaten to the punch by EA and DICE. Instead of continuing down the future warfare path with numbered games, they instead went with Battlefield 1. It was named such not because it was a remake of the first game, but because it was set during World War I. The decision was well received, and the game was regarded as a long-awaited return to form for war-based FPS titles.
Considering that, it’s no surprise to see that the CoD franchise will be taking similar steps. Their partially dejected fanbase was excited upon hearing rumors earlier this year saying the series would return to World War II with the newest installment, specifically called Call of Duty: WWII. This especially applies to those who thought Activision lost the plot by having the latest installment go into outer space. The new game won’t be fully unveiled until April 26th, this Wednesday, but they should provide a little gameplay footage to go with this, alongside info that hasn’t already been leaked.
First-person shooters returning to the World Wars shows how cyclical trends can be in the gaming universe. It’s funny to see for anyone who remembers the number of message board posts, blog posts, and editorials detailing how tired people were of treading the same ground in the World Wars and Vietnam a decade ago. Of course, there’s also a chance that the audience could become tired of these games again in the future, only for developers and publishers to return to future and modern warfare games again. That goes doubly so for CoD, since it’s still an annual franchise; that’s unlike Battlefield, where EA can afford to make bi-annual installments thanks to also having the revived Star Wars Battlefront series — the second installment of which releases this fall. But again, people won’t tire of this trend as quickly this time around thanks to the lack of competition in the AAA space.
Leaked promotional materials for CoDWWII say it will release on November 3rd for PS4, XB1, and PC. This should be confirmed with the reveal on Wednesday, and should arrive alongside the first trailer. Unless they change their traditional promotional habits this time, don’t expect to see a gameplay demo until E3 2017. Assuming the game turns out well, it should sell better than Infinite Warfare, given the trends.
Cliché phrases shouldn’t be used even in semi-professional writing, but the phrase “everything old is new again” applies here. If there’s a gaming-related trend you miss, cross your fingers and hope it’s also cyclical; that is, if it’s not already making a comeback, like console Japanese RPGs.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
