Infinity Ward have had a rough time of things lately- they struck gold with Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, before the largely considered to be disappointing Modern Warfare 3 came about in 2011. In 2013, Infinity Ward followed that up with Call of Duty Ghosts, considered to be the nadir of the Call of Duty franchise, and a game so bad, it almost killed its commercial viability.
However, with Infinite Warfare, the newest game from the studio that is slated to hit later this year, Infinity Ward are looking to make amends. Speaking to Polygon, Infinity Ward’s Taylor Kurosaki expressed hopes that Infinite Warfare would be the start of something new- an established sub franchise within the Call of Duty brand, not unlike Treyarch’s Black Ops 3.
“We want to establish our own new subfranchise. Our own new branch of the Call of Duty tree. What we are developing here could certainly support multiple games. We’re trying to develop a very rich world that we’re not even close to exhausting,” Kurosaki said.
Will Infinite Warfare be good enough for something like that? After the vitriolic negative reception to the game’s reveal, it appears as though most people are coming around to it, and impressions on the title appear to be largely positive. Whether or not Infinite Warfare lives up to its own pedigree remains to be seen- for now, we will wish Infinity Ward the best of luck.