There are plenty of franchises that will die long before COD does.

Sure it can't keep breaking records every year but it is showing no signs of any significant decline.

I agree. Battlefield is a very rewarding experience in you invest a lot of time into it. Especially if you play with friends or a clan.

But Call of Duty is easier to pick up and have 30 mins of fun and put down again.

I don't know how well MW3 will fare but I doubt it'll be as much of a selling behemoth that were the previous installments. If anything COD4 has left a very nice impression and built a solid foundation for future COD franchises. It will never get to the stage where it won't be profitable to make COD anymore, and as long as Activ. makes profit I don't see the reason they would stop.

One BIG element of games is novelty.  A game has to do something to surprise, and entertain.  If you keep doing the same over and over, people get bored.  I do believe a game genre can get played out if it is played out too much.  And, you can take the converse to.  IF players end up happy with what is there, then they may not feel a need to get something new, if it really isn't new, and will stick with what they have.

One can say, "Oh Madden is casual and..."  Well, Madden has roster updates, and EA can force people to have to buy the new version, to get the new roster.

As opposed to casual?  I would say anything that gets extensive play, has a hardcore base of players.  Why would one put Call of Duty in the same category as Peggle or cell phone stuff or board and cardgames?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_game

A casual game is a video game targeted at or used by a mass audience of casual gamers. Casual games can have any type of gameplay, and fit in any genre. They are typically distinguished by their simple rules and lack of commitment required in contrast to more complex hardcore games.^[1] They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer.

Casual games are typically played on a personal computer online in web browsers, although they now are starting to become popular on game consoles and mobile phones as well. Casual gamers are typically older than traditional computer gamers,^[2] and more oftentimes female,^[3] with over 74% of casual gamers female.^[4]

The ONLY part really you can argue that Call of Duty is "Casual" is that it has a large number of less than skilled players who play it.

After playing CoD its hard to play any other FPS games. CoD runs at a beautiful 60 frames per second and the controls are as good as any FPS on the market. After playing that its hard to play Battlefield which is a weaksauce 20FPS.

I will give EA credit for putting in dedicated servers though. If MW3 had dedicated servers I guarantee it would be great. 

Battlefield will never top cod for a simple reason - you need skills and tactics for it ;)

so battlefield doesnt need tactics? im not much of a battlefield player but from what ive seen it requires team work.

The only franchise that Nintendo "milks" is Mario.

The reason that it works for them, is because they opened Mario up to an expanded audiance. with each new Mario game (well almost every one) Nintendo introduces somthing new to the franchise. With CoD, it's amost the same thing every year. Also, Nintendo stragetically releases Mario games, unlike Activision.

I'm assuming once Duke Nukem Forever and Battlefield 3 come out, CoD's time will be up. If they ever do come out...