About two weeks ago we heard rumors about Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, to the surprise of no one. On Monday May 2nd, the released the official reveal trailer for the game, and it now has 206,000 likes and almost 500,000 dislikes. That’s about twice as many dislikes compared to likes, and someone asked Activision at an Investor’s Conference if this was a concern for the company. Of course, being one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, Activision say the negative response as a good thing.
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in response to the trailer’s dislikes said “This is an industry like no other, and a fanbase like no other, and we love that our fans treat this franchise like it’s their own and has such strong points of view about it. There just aren’t many entertainment franchises on Earth that can generate the kind of passion that Call of Duty can. That’s a good thing.”
Hirshberg also added that “we know that there are people in our community who are nostalgic for the boots-on-the-ground style gameplay, and that’s why we made Modern Warfare Remastered. But we also have millions of people in our community who want to have new, innovative experiences in the game each year , and Infinite Warfare delivers that…this year we found a way to deliver both in one package while keeping our community together.”
First off, Modern Warfare came out in 2007, and I don’t think that is enough time for it to be considered “nostalgic.” Also, the dislikes might have come from the fact that you have to buy Infinite Warfare to get Modern Warfare Remastered.
There were many positives Hirshberg mentioned, such as the fact that “preorders are off to a very strong start, views to the reveal trailer you referred to are up, and in fact the number of likes-per-view on the Infinite Warfare reveal trailer are also the highest we’ve ever seen.”
It’s clear that there are many people out there who have become displeased with the amount of Call of Duty games being released, so this isn’t actually the first time a reveal trailer was so disliked. As Hirshberg said “…the reveal trailer for Black Ops II…had the most dislikes of any reveal trailer we had ever made at the time, and that of course went on to be the most successful game ever.” He continued “We have more people playing Black Ops III…than any game in our history. So what we know for sure is that if we always did what worked in the past and never took any creative risks, we wouldn’t have a franchise. The day to worry is the day we stop trying new things.”
For anyone interested in marketing, take note on how Hirshberg spun this series of events. Activision is basically saying that Call of Duty is such a behemoth of a franchise with such a dedicated fanbase, that even with all their haters the series is still strong. In 2009, there was even a boycott of Modern Warfare 2 on the PC, and that became the best selling Call of Duty game on PC. Activision owns some of the biggest games and the biggest game franchises in the world, so a disliked video isn’t going to phase them.