Activision marketing chief says a 'Call of Duty tax' reduces media coverage

[Respawned Kev]

Activision's chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl has said that a Call of Duty tax leads some media outlets to overlook the work that goes into each new game. VGC's Chris Scullion reports that Bahl made the comments in an interview with The Game Business. He contrasted the coverage with the excitement that often surrounds indie games and new Steam releases

Bahl shared some big numbers. He said about 4,500 people work on Call of Duty, and that the series has 100 million free to play players, 500 million units sold and one billion mobile downloads. He suggested that scale has become the status quo in people's minds, so it no longer feels like news

Activision's recent marketing has focused on behind the scenes development rather than big, bombastic adverts. That approach seems designed to show the craft and effort involved, perhaps in response to the coverage issue Bahl described

Not everyone agreed with his explanation. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella replied on Bluesky that purchase intent for Modern Warfare 4 among US console and PC players was 15 percent in August, compared with 21 percent for Black Ops 7 at the same point last year. He noted that the explanation keeps changing, from Game Pass last year to media coverage now

Call of Duty is so big that it is easy to take for granted, and Bahl has a point that thousands of people work hard on each game. But the purchase intent figures suggest player interest may be the bigger issue. Modern Warfare 4 launches on 23 October, so sales will soon tell the real story

Does Call of Duty get unfair coverage because of its size? Or is player interest cooling?

The Call Of Duty Tax Means Games Media Doesnt Cover Cod The Way It Used To Activision Sayswww.videogameschronicle.com

[Sandman30]

Big games always get less excitement than surprising indies. That is just how news works. Something familiar is not a story in the same way. Indies also benefit from underdog stories, which journalists love. Call of Duty can never be the underdog