The official multiplayer beta for Activision’s new “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” on the PlayStation 4 starts very shortly, and those who want to check out what the new game has to offer should definitely jump on. There has been a lot of controversy about it ever since it was announced, and it will be very interesting to see how the actual release works out for the studio.
People had mixed responses to the initial reveal of the game, with some claiming that Activision have been pushing the futuristic trend far too much, and it’s going against the core theme of the franchise. We’ve already seen several “Call of Duty” games that followed this idea, and some were actually pretty successful overall, so we don’t expect “Infinite Warfare” to fail just because of its premise.
But it’s also true that “Infinite Warfare” pushed this trend even further, and the studio might risk going over the top at this point. We’ll have to wait and see how the actual release plays out, because so far we’ve only been looking at the game through the selective eyes of the publisher’s marketing team.
However, Activision have also made some questionable decisions with the marketing of the game. While the studio received a lot of praise for their decision to remake “Call of Duty 4”, players felt like a cheap move to limit the game behind the purchase of “Infinite Warfare”. In the end, this alone drew a lot of criticism to both games and it looks like many players will judge them with a negative predisposition based on that alone.
It would be a bit humorous if the “Modern Warfare” remaster actually manages to get more active players than “Infinite Warfare” itself, but it’s actually not far from some people’s minds right now. The remaster of the older game is presented in a very attractive way, and many fans seem eager to relive their memories and the huge revolution in the shooter genre that the game offered.
It’s questionable if it will still hold up today, as back then it was judged by some slightly different standards. “Call of Duty 4” managed to give a huge push to not only the franchise itself, but the shooter genre as a whole. It will be hard to replicate this success nowadays, as the market has changed a lot and this genre in particular is quite saturated with similar-looking games, and has been for a while.
But that’s not the main selling factor of the remake anyway, it’s the nostalgic hit that it will offer to some gamers. Whether or not it will manage to be attractive to those who didn’t grow up playing “Call of Duty 4” in the past is another story, but not many people seem to expect that from the game.
With that in mind, it’s also hard to predict what kinds of sales “Infinite Warfare” is going to see. While some people will without doubt buy the new game just so they can get their hands on the remaster of the iconic classic, they will surely be a small number in the grand scheme of things.
Activision have been putting a lot of effort into the marketing of the new “Infinite Warfare”, and while gamers seem to be responding a bit negatively to some of the trailers, we’ve already seen that in the past and it doesn’t have to be a bad sign for the success of the game once it’s out.
The quality of the multiplayer should shine quite soon, as the beta will make it clear whether or not the core mechanics of the game still hold up, or if Activision will have to take more drastic measures for the next installment.