Publisher Activision Blizzard has revealed a lot of insider information about the past financial year in its “2021 Annual Report” for its investors and has also talked about why Call of Duty: Vanguard fell short of expectations. The developers mention mainly 2 reasons.
Why did Call of Duty: Vanguard sell so poorly? In a report to the shareholders of Activision Blizzard, the responsible parties name two reasons for Vanguard’s underperformance compared to expectations:
- The setting in World War II was not well received by the community
- There were not as many innovations delivered as expected by the players
They also state that it was mainly due to their own mistakes and that the market was misjudged. If you want to view the English report yourself, you can read the information here: via publicnow.com (Document).
Vanguard is selling poorly, but 2022 could be the year for CoD
How poorly did Vanguard sell? Official sales figures are only available from certain regions.
It is known, for example, that the figures in the UK were 40% lower than the sales of its predecessor, Cold War (via gamesindustry.biz). And Cold War had already fallen behind Modern Warfare 2019.
The first quarterly report from Activision Blizzard shows a similar picture (via businesswire.com). Revenues from product sales of Activision games declined significantly.
While in the first 3 months of 2021, 675 million $ were generated from product sales, in the same period in 2022, it was only 386 million $.
Since Activision primarily has only Call of Duty as a major new title in its portfolio, these product sales are largely attributable to the CoD franchise. In-game sales and similar revenues are listed separately. These figures did not decrease as much – from 1.6 billion dollars in 2021 to 1.382 billion dollars in 2022.
The figures from Blizzard, such as for WoW Shadowlands, are listed separately and are not part of the above figures.
Is Vanguard a flop? Talking about a flop in a Call of Duty game is always a bit contentious. The franchise sells exceptionally well compared to other games.
Vanguard was the best-selling game in the USA in 2021 (via statista.com). In second place, CoD continues with Cold War, the CoD from 2020, which takes home the silver.
Even the modern CoDs, which are considered real flops – Black Ops 4 and Infinite Warfare – sold well over 14 million copies. These are figures that other games can only dream of.
A CoD can sell poorly. But there has not been a flop, in relation to the market, since the first major hype of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
What’s next for the CoD franchise? The new report reveals that currently, 3,000 people are working on Call of Duty and they are bringing the sequel to the most successful CoD to date: Modern Warfare 2.
It is also already known that at least 3 CoD games are in development:
- Modern Warfare 2 – Premium CoD 2022
- Warzone 2 (name not officially confirmed) – Free2Play Battle Royale
- Warzone: Mobile – Free2Play mobile spin-off
According to rumors, there will be no CoD 2023.
If you want to know more about the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, visit here: Call of Duty 2022 is called Modern Warfare 2: Everything we know so far – Reveal, Setting, Game Modes
