Having too much of a good thing always ends badly.
Get in your car, drive to GameStop and throw a rock inside. No you’re not aiming at the attendant behind the counter (even though he does deserve to get beaned for offering you $2 for that brand new Xbox One game). Instead, your target is something more common. Even if you did this blind-folded, odds are the game knocked off the shelf would be a shooter. The FPS genre has permeated every aspect of our consoles, spreading like a weed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love shooters. Some of the most exciting and fun times I’ve ever had in gaming have revolved around this play mechanic. Also, it’s no coincidence that many of the world records which have been broken in our industry over the last five years or so have been tied to the first-person experience. Leading the pack is the hugely popular Call of Duty , whose yearly release has now become much like a gaming Bible to some. While the days of a bat-sh*t crazy response (as seen with Modern Warfare 3 ) have seemingly passed, recent releases such as Black Ops II, Ghosts (and of course Advanced Warfare ) are still easily outselling just about every other franchise on the market. Even with their latest iterations receiving not-so great reviews, you’d never know it, as they continually out-shine their counterparts in the sales department. Having said that, an interesting statistic leads me to believe the honeymoon may have finally concluded. A recent study on pre-orders suggests that gamers are no longer awaiting each new Call of Duty with baited breath as they once did.
The CVG released new info I believe is quite telling. It would appear the latest entry has failed to capture the same level of interest as in years past, with its pre-order sales dropping by 40% from last year (and 70% from the year before that). Analysts at Cowen and Company recently commented, stating it signifies that popularity of the title has finally reached its zenith. “We continue to believe CoD will be down meaningfully vs. last year. With the franchise facing two consecutive significant year on year declines in sales, we think it is prudent to assume it has peaked.” They state. Now there could be myriad of reasons for this. First of all, your average FPS crowd isn’t big on pre-orders in the first place, so it’s expected those numbers won’t be too huge. However, I sense a deeper cause. If you’re an average-Joe gamer such as myself, you’re getting a bit burned out on the genre as a whole. I mean…how many freakin’ space marine shooters can we play before we finally hang ourselves with our wireless controllers (only the most determined will be successful)?
I think this comes back to an age old problem with the games industry. Things are cyclical, and when one thing gets popular, developers tend to hump that for long periods (hoping to milk every last dollar from it). Yes shooters have always been prevalent, but at no time can I remember things being this crowded (and might I add stale). While some are just turned off due to Advanced Warfare ’s sci-fi departure being too different for their tastes, I suggest others are simply tired of the same old-same old.
I really don’t think it’s too much to ask. Am I that crazy to yearn for something truly “next” from our next generation? So far, much seen has been a wash-rinse-repeat formula from yesterday. We need a breath of fresh air today.