5 reasons why the next Call of Duty wont be released on next gen consoles

We’ve heard it already a while back; a leaked developer CV was found which shed some light on the next Call of Duty game. The CV listed an unannounced game for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC (maybe even the Wii-U?) from infinity ward with DirectX 11 support. This caused a big fuss amongst the gaming community claiming that this was a sign that the next Call of Duty will be released on next gen consoles. This was of course claimed as the next gen consoles ‘PS4’ and ‘Xbox 720’ were tipped to run DirectX 11 games.

With that said I still don’t think we will see the next Call of Duty game on next gen consoles; so here are 5 reasons to why we wont be seeing Call of Duty going next gen:

1) There are too many consoles to develop for: if this was the case some consoles most likely the current gen would have to be cut! If the next Call of Duty was developed on all consoles we would see the next call of duty for the following platforms:

  • PS3
  • Xbox 360
  • PC
  • Wii-U
  • PS4
  • Xbox 720

So that is a total of 6 platforms running essentially the same game; I haven’t listed any portable versions there as they are usually a completely different game overall. But I believe this is way too much for the development team to handle!

 

2) Experience: this is another key problem here. The next gen consoles would have only just arrived which would most likely make Call of Duty a launch title for next gen consoles. This leads me to believe it is way too early to release a Call of Duty game for a console with lack of experience, as it could indeed ruin the franchise if done wrong. Call of Duty is already known to be have a lot of bugs and glitches as it is (which eventually get patched up). So I’m sure Activision wouldn’t want to throw away their cash cow so easily next gen; by releasing an unplayable/broken game in the next gen launch lineup. First impressions always stick!

 

3) The next generation development kits were released too late: both Infinity Ward and Treyarch are known to work on their next game as soon as possible in order to keep delivering the Call of Duty franchise on a yearly basis. This includes planning the new game, the story, voice acting, animations and so on. As I believe development kit spec leaks started late last year, this makes me wonder if they had enough time to develop the new game in the first place. Unless of course it is being rushed out (but going by my second point in this article this would surely end up a disaster).

4) A new game engine: Call of Duty fans (and haters) have been crying out for a new game engine for a long time now. I believe that Activision may actually give in and create a new game engine for the next generation Call of Duty. This would breathe new life into the game and hopefully make it somewhat different whilst keeping the things we all love. Creating a game on a new engine would take a bit of time to adapt to which is another reason why I believe next gen won’t come into play just yet.

Then again Activision could just go ahead and tweak the current system drastically! Or even just use the same game engine for next generation. Doing either would get the fire burning in the Call of Duty hater community that’s for sure!

 

5) The exclusive Microsoft deal: As you may know by now Microsoft have an exclusive deal with Activision allowing them access to DLC content quicker than any other platform. This forces PS3 users to wait a month extra to get the latest multiplayer maps and missions. This also is the deal breaker in my eyes to why we won’t see the next Call of Duty going next gen, as I stated in my previous article The PlayStation 4 rumors showdown that I believed we would be seeing the PlayStation 4 console being released this year and the next Xbox in 2014. Now if this was the case and going by the game release cycle I’m sure Microsoft would hate seeing the PS4 having the next Call of Duty first. Especially with the special deal they have with Activision. Which forces me to believe the following could happen:

  • Sony make an exclusive deal with Activision next gen (highly doubtful)
  • Call of Duty becomes a release title for Xbox 720 – changes the Call of Duty franchise release cycle (possible)
  • No Call of Duty for next generation consoles (most likely)

This is the major factor that would stop Call of Duty going next generation so soon; Microsoft and Activision have a really tight relationship in terms of Call of Duty! So I personally don’t see Modern Warfare 4 making the shelves next gen.

 

So what do you all think? Are there any more reasons to why we wont be seeing Call of Duty next gen? Or can you provide me reasons to why we would see Call of Duty going next gen?