# Call of Duty’s annual release has reached “pop-cultural inevitability”, says Hirshberg



## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

*Call of Duty’s annual release has reached “pop-cultural inevitability”, says Hirshberg*

“Another year, another Call of Duty” does seem to have become a gaming culture staple, but Activision’s Eric Hirshberg has stressed that the series’ annual release schedule exists because fans demand it.










Speaking with Eurogamer, Hirshberg claims that yearly Call of Duty sequels – which began back in 2006 – exist because the appetite is there among fans.

He said, “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. 

“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.”

He added that Treyarch and Infinity Ward’s desire to out-do each other’s games, and the leapfrogging 18 month development cycles has resulted in a good system that makes yearly releases possible.

He continued, “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. 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.” 

Are you still pumped by yearly Call of Duty sequels or would you like to see the franchise take a break and return with something bigger? Let us know below.

Source: VG24/7


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## JBrax (Oct 13, 2011)

I personally enjoy the annual release. Two years ago is when I started getting into the COD franchise. Before I wasn't into the FPS games but thanks to my 18 year old son I found myself standing in line at the age of 42 with a bunch of teenagers waiting for a copy on it's release day. I find it therapeutic to play from time to time.


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## |Tch0rT| (May 2, 2013)

Personally I'm tired of annual releases and it's one of the main reasons why I quit buying Call of Duty games. I dislike having to keep buying a new one to play with people I like and it's turned into a bottomless money pit. I'm also done with the Battlefield series as they're trying to compete with Call Of Duty now and keep pumping out new games too soon though they haven't quite hit annual releases... yet. I won't buy anymore Assassin's Creed games since they announced it's now an annual franchise.


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## gorb (Sep 5, 2010)

I've never played a call of duty game. I'll stick to counterstrike (1.6 of course) until the last server goes down. I don't really have a problem with the annual releases provided enough things actually change, but if that's not the case, it is pretty lame.


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