Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was considered and is still considered one of Call of Duty’s biggest commercial failures since it first released back in 2016. The 13th Call of Duty title by then, the trailer went on to become one of the most disliked YouTube videos ever and was met with intense backlash before and after release. Despite its interesting futuristic premise, it still wasn’t able to impress most Call of Duty fans. There are a few identifiable reasons why Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare failed, and here are the top four reasons why Infinite Warfare failed:
1. Infinite Warfare Was Too Different
Call of Duty often took place in more boots-on-the-ground war environments like the World Wars. For a few titles before Infinite Warfare, players were exploring wars inspired by the United States’ actions in the Middle East. Occasionally, players would get a chance to go to South America, Africa, Europe, etc…
However, the thing that brings these settings all together is that Call of Duty remained realistic throughout all of them.
Suddenly, Call of Duty introduced Infinite Warfare, which was completely set in the future and even included space warfare. This was a pretty big change for the series, and one that didn’t seem to sit well with most fans.
Many often enjoyed Call of Duty for its realism, but Infinite Warfare’s sci-fi premise was clearly not realistic, and that upset a lot of fans of the series.
2. The Story Was Pretty Mediocre
Another pretty big issue with Infinite Warfare was the quality of its story. Although Call of Duty is often praised for its story, Infinite Warfare’s just didn’t stick the landing.
The story followed a group of soldiers from different countries fighting against a separatist group. It’s a pretty simple premise, but it was not executed very well. Many found it uninteresting and boring. Others felt that the characters were not developed well-enough and that it was difficult to connect with them.
However, there is a silver-lining to this: A lot of players did like some of the cooler space-themed combat sequences in outer space. The graphics were also very nice and looked nearly realistic in cutscenes. At the end of the day, it was a relatively decent story, but certainly not Call of Duty’s best offering.
3. The Multiplayer Was Hated (As Usual?)
Call of Duty often gets a lot of flak for its multiplayer. Although people still buy and play it religiously, they somehow find reasons to complain endlessly about it too. Makes you wonder why they still play it if it makes them that angry, right?
Either way, Infinite Warfare’s trend of futurism found its way into the multiplayer component of the title as well. Some people liked the new movement mechanics, others didn’t. For the most part, the weapons were fine and many enjoyed using them.
However, the maps were designed poorly for many players. Additionally, with the futuristic components, wall-jumping and other features were added. Many players felt like Call of Duty was simply copying Titanfall and was doing a poor job of it too.
Others didn’t like that the realistic style of gameplay was removed from the multiplayer and the complaint that it was too futuristic carried over. Others felt like the multiplayer was not balanced well, and there were just many issues to go through.
4. Battlefield 1 Just Dropped Too
Battlefield and Infinite Warfare released around the same time. The difference was that Battlefield 1 was very realistic and set in World War I while Infinite Warfare wasn’t. The Battlefield trailer portrayed a gritty and dark world of war, loaded with violence and action. Infinite Warfare didn’t.
Some complained that Infinite Warfare was childish compared to Battlefield and its lack of realism was hindering its competitive ability.
Conclusions
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare failed for a number of reasons. Although it would out-sell many other games when it released in 2016, Infinite Warfare failed to retain a player base into the future. Compared to other Call of Duty titles, it has dropped to almost no daily players.
Its lack of realism and its push for futurism was a move that many Call of Duty players did not appreciate and its subpar multiplayer as well as its mediocre story did not help either.
All-in-all, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is considered one of the biggest franchise failures ever for Call of Duty and is one of the lowest selling titles in the series.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
