The company believes that the underperformance of the game was caused by the World War II setting and the lack of innovations in the game.
Despite being the best-selling game in 2021, Call of Duty: Vanguard fell short of Activision Blizzard's expectations, according to the company's annual report for investors. The company believes that the underperformance of the game was caused by two factors: the World War II setting and the lack of innovations in the game.
"While Call of Duty remains one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time, our 2021 premium release didn’t meet our expectations, we believe primarily due to our own execution," the company wrote. "The game’s World War II setting didn’t resonate with some of our community and we didn’t deliver as much innovation in the premium game as we would have liked.”
However, players cited other reasons for not being interested in Vanguard. According to a survey conducted by GamesIndustry.biz in collaboration with EGX and PAX, the major reason for not buying the game was that the gamers were simply busy playing other games. Besides, the players noted they got tired of the franchise or needed some break from it, considering a huge number of Call of Duty games that have come out in recent years.
Call of Duty: Vanguard was released in November 2021, and its launch sales showed the worst results among any game in the series in 14 years, being 40% lower compared to the previous year's game.
In its financial report, Activision noted that it will be "certainly addressing both of these issues" with
the launch of the next game, which will be released in 2022. "Development on the 2022 premium and Warzone
experiences is being led by Activision’s renowned Infinity Ward studio," the publisher wrote. "We are working on the most ambitious plan in Call of Duty history, with over 3,000 people now working on the franchise and a return to the Modern Warfare setting that delivered our most successful Call of Duty title ever."
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