Call of Duty has long reigned supreme in terms of overall sales for a console game. It’s instant accessibility, coupled with its popularity among teenage boys and the esports crowd have seen sales showing no signs of letting up, until now that is.
Call of Duty has long be the subject of abuse from gamers across the globe, with metacritic scores sabotaged at every occasion and mixed reviews from many top gaming sites, it certainly has seen a backlash in recent times. The downward spiral doesn’t stop at reviews, with Call of Duty Ghosts showing the tired old formula doesn’t have the same punch as it once had. The next in the series has already been the subject of controversy among fans, with many feeling skeptical about innovation and many wanting the series to return to its roots as a world war shooter. This has been reflected by poor showings in pre-order sales, with many vendors listing Call of Duty Advanced warfare way down the pecking order in terms of pre-orders. Such sites include Amazon, where the top dog at the minute seems to be Destiny, with both the Xbox One and PS4 versions topping the charts in the UK and the US.
Pre-order chart from Amazon UK
The combination of factors included above lead me to believe that the sales crown is there for the taking, so who are the contenders?
Destiny
W e shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that Destiny has gathered momentum in terms of expectations and pre-orders. Bungie are held in high regard by those familiar with them, with Halo being their stand out title as well as notable others including Myth and Marathon in an illustrious and successful back catalog. Destiny is ambitious and feels like Halo, which is no bad thing considering the amount of units it pushed for the Xbox consoles. Playstation fans will never see Halo on their beloved console but this is the next best thing and if early demos are anything to go by then it could yet prove to be the Halo killer they have longed for. Destiny has tons of ambition, a great team working on it and could yet see the console gaming crowd pull away from the competitive scene and substitute it with an open world, team based gem of a game.
Battlefield Hardline
Once tipped to be the natural successor to Call of Duty, Battlefield has feel spectacularly from grace due to continued issues with Battlefield 4. It’s been bugged by constant problems but expect these to be ironed out on release of Hardline. I have doubts whether Battlefield will continue to grow, sure it has a big following but a lot of fans were left alienated by the launch issues of BF4 and hence a lot of faith has been lost. There is also the argument that the series has nowhere to go, beyond getting bigger and prettier it is confined to realism and therefore innovation issues will be raised with every installment. The Call of Duty fanbase will probably not make the switch to Hardline, regardless of whether or not the game is truly the AAA title it’s being touted to be.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Once the undisputed king of console shooters, Halo has lost its shine with recent installments. Halo 4 took the series in to a different direction and the multiplayer was shunned by its millions of fans. The Halo crowd have since dispersed and are probably split between a variety of different games and drawing them back will take something special, luckily I think this is it. Those who are old enough and were lucky enough to experience Halo 2 multiplayer should cry tears of joy as the once dominating game makes its comeback. Halo 2 had a huge attachment rate and I expect the same to happen with the masterchief collection. The problem it faces is the uncertainty of the Xbox One console, had this somehow been released on all the big consoles then I would expect this to take the crown but with the small userbase of the Xbox One it could be tough to make big numbers. I expect this to outsell Advanced Warfare on the Xbox One but overall it hasn’t a chance.
Who will be the console FPS king come the end of the year?
Destiny looks to be in pole position to make the swoop, mainly because it’s released on multiple consoles. I sincerely hope someone takes the sales crown away from Call of Duty. There is a smug like complacency with the game, which sees the same game with a different skin get rehashed year in, year out because fools keep buying it. As gamers we should take a stand if Advanced Warfare is the same old tired game they keep presenting us every year and not buy the damn thing. Only with a drop in sales will we see a good Call of Duty game once more.
http://videogamedebate.com/2014/06/28/call-of-duty-pre-orders-are-low-who-will-be-the-new-fps-king/
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