If you went back...3 years, wouldn't you say the same about Guitar Hero?

OT: 2013, or when the next gen starts. I don't see it carrying over next gen, like so many things in the past 

As long as the gameplay is decent, it will sell fairly well.

It's the Madden or FIFA of shooters.

Im happy with Black Ops and loved COD4. But with Battlefield coming Im very pump for it..and I dont care for what IW is coming up with. Zombie mode saved Black ops and Ill probably buy the next Treyarch installment of COD but unless IW can make something awesome..then no buy....and no tatical nuke...how about an ion cannon?

It may have a very small decline, but I doubt the series will be completely burnt out.

the bubble will burst but unlike tony hawk or guitar hero it's gonna take a genuine fuck up since this is a shooter instead of a natural decline in the genre. i see that fuck up happening in the shift from current gen to next gen along with new ip's and reinventions of old franchises taking its thunder. 

i think call of duty has peaked with black ops and sales wise its downhill from here. Most people i know who play cod and myself included are waiting for another fps that can take call of dutys place because im tired of the call of duty.

It's difficult to speculate. As has been pointed out earlier in the thread: CoD is a shooter, a genre that has always been strong since it's full conception.

Either there'll suddenly be a spur of consumer wisdom (which is unlikely given humans are the consumers) and people will see it's the same thing over and over and thus stop buying, it will live on forever like a gaming Bruce Forsyth, Activison will actually start giving a crap about producing decent games (Unlikely unless Kotick dies (But one can pray)) or a better, bigger shooter will hit screens.

I'd go with the lattermost. Give it a few years.

I voted for 2013 but I think it will take longer than that.

probably after this yr with MW3 made by new devs that will go up against Battelfield 3 releasing this fall

as for when will acti. pulls the plug from it not anytime soon even if MW3 fails the series can easily be brought back to life next gen

I think it will burn out in the sense that sales will dop enough that it will not be a yearly game. There are so many new people joining all the time so I expect it still has a good 3-5 years before everything gets to redundant.  For all you shooter haters, I am sorry to say that I don't think anything is changing anytime soon so if you dont like the games of today go retro and quit whining because alot of people have loved shooters for well over a decade and that is not going to change. SORRY.