The reveal trailer for Call of Duty WW2 is getting a great response. This cannot be said about the “Infinite Warfare” reveal.
At the end of April, Activision and Sledgehammer Games let the cat out of the bag: The next installment of the CoD franchise will be called Call of Duty WW2 and will take place in a “World War II” setting. After the sci-fi settings of the last few years with Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3, and Infinite Warfare, it goes back to the past in 2017. The fans are excited!
With Infinite Warfare, the CoD title from 2016, the situation was quite the opposite: The reveal trailer received tons of dislikes and became the worst rated trailer on Youtube overall.
Infinite Warfare disappointed fans and publisher
After just a few days, the IW trailer had to take 1.5 million thumbs down, which meant a negative record for a trailer on Youtube. Now, a good year later, the trailer has a whopping 3.5 million dislikes. A nightmare for those responsible!
The main reason for this is quickly found: The futuristic space setting was not well received at all by the passionate fan community. Zooming through space in spaceships and hopping around in zero gravity – that was and is too far removed from what one imagines a Call of Duty to be. Battlefield’s “World War I” setting was much better received, which won over the favor of shooter fans.
A few days ago, Activision’s CEO Eric Hirshberg admitted that Infinite Warfare was indeed the wrong game at the wrong time. Financially as well, IW was not the success they had planned, said Hirshberg.
WW2 will now return to the roots of Call of Duty. This will be “the right game at the right time from the right development team.”
“Boots on the Ground” with WW2 is well received
During the reveal of CoD: WW2, the developers emphasized several times: “Boots on the Ground”. This means that the game will not be a futuristic space shooter with laser guns, wall runs, jetpacks, or high-tech suits, but rather a grounded shooter that focuses on realism – where soldiers truly have their boots on the ground.
And this is well received: The reveal trailer for WW2 has not received 1.5 million dislikes like its predecessor, but “only” 80,000. They are met with an overwhelming majority of nearly one million likes.
This has allowed those responsible to completely turn the mood in the CoD fan community around. According to Activision boss Bobby Kotick, the negative social media sentiment that was a huge problem last year has dissipated. The “Youtube dislike nightmare” is now over and has been replaced by hundreds of thousands of likes for the reveal trailer.
The WW2 trailer is by the way the trailer in CoD history that reached 10 million views the fastest – after just one day.
At Activision’s investor conference for the first quarter of 2017, it was announced that pre-orders for Call of Duty: WW2 – as well as for Destiny 2 – have started very strong. It remains to be seen whether the tone will still be so good at the release on November 3rd.
