Activision struck a metaphorical vein of gold when they tapped into the modern gaming market with their revolutionary Modern Warfare shooter back in 2007 and since then the series has gone through hills and valleys, but always remained a steady seller.

Recently however, as of November 2014, sales of the series have been down with Call of Duty Advanced Warfare being down 27% compared to Call of Duty Ghosts. But despite being down, the game was the top selling title in the US at retail for 2014, that helps lend some scope to the sales the series achieves.

The latest iteration of the Call of Duty series, which is yet to be named, is expected to have sales that are going to “be consistent” with the sales of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. Speaking at the Q4 Earnings Call, Activision’s Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said, “Our 2015 guidance on Call of Duty is nearly flat year over year, but we saw that’s a pretty conservative planning assumption. We have Treyarch developing the game, we’ll have a larger installed base in next-gen hardware to sell into, and we believe our Q4 new release is going to be one of our best games yet. So we think the future’s bright.”

We’re certain that they would rather see sales go up, but posting a $1 Billion margin of sales is nothing to be sniffed at and is more than enough for any developer and publisher when they have so many other titles under their belt.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare players have been receiving emails that are giving them details regarding a new Call of Duty Advanced Warfare promotion that, whilst only applicable to participating stores, shows some big prices cuts as well as a number of in- game bonuses.

Those who received the email will get up to $20 off the usual retail price of Advanced Warfare Best Buy, EB Games (GameStop), Future Shop, and Walmart. You will also receive 5 free supply drops and a full 10 hours of double XP that kicks in once you start up your first online multiplayer match. The promotional digital flier says that the promotion and presumably the double XP event will end on December 31st.

For those that didn’t receive a promotional email, this weekend is a double XP event for all players regardless of platform. With Time Zones being as conflicting as they are, there’s no way of knowing exactly when this will begin in your region.

[Source]

As an Irishman who happens to have a particularly invested interest in video games and a general dislike of Call of Duty, this displeases me. Oh Guinness, thou hast failed me and slammed your black gates in my face. Personally anyway, I’m sure someone out there is happy about this.

The Guinness World Records organization has awarded the Call of Duty franchise the “Best Game Series”  achievement which is a big highlight for the already blockbuster franchise of first person shooters. Developing a successful video game is one thing, but making one that takes the world by storm every time it drops and churns up a monster profit is another.

Craig Glenday, Editor in-Chief at Guinness World Records said “More than 5,000 fans of the book from 140 countries across the world took to an online poll to vote for their favourite games, and the top 50 record-breaking games were featured in the book,”

This is the second time today I’ve said this, but damn, congratulations to everyone involved in making such a successful franchise, well done!

[Source]

This really shouldn’t surprise you or me, but I’m just sitting here with an odd mix of awe and understanding. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare dropped recently as you’re probably aware and despite a host of initial launch problems the game is absolutely selling gangbusters, in fact it’s the fifth fastest selling Call of Duty which is, in its own way, surprising.

The first week sales are higher than that of Destiny, Titanfall and Wolfenstien: The New Order combined…and this was only the fifth best selling Call of Duty. Numbers like that prove that despite the games falling appeal amongst gamers, it has still got a monstrous fan following that doesn’t show any sign of going away any time soon, which is a good and bad thing, no matter how you look at it.

Though credit given where credit is due, congratulations to everyone involved in making such a successful game.

[Source]

There’s one thing we all know for certain when it comes to the Call of Duty franchise. It is in no way, shape or form, for gamers. It’s a cash cow with an infinite field of fuel to munch on. And with that in mind, here’s an update on the Share Play functionality being blocked on PS4 and, wouldn’t you know it, it’s poorly reasoned.

Activision have said, “Share Play is a new feature that was introduced as part of the recent PS4 firmware 2.00 update. Our engineers didn’t have access to it before it launched, so we haven’t had a chance to evaluate it to see how it will impact the experience across all modes of play,”…”Of course we wouldn’t include a feature in our game without having the chance to test it. Once we’ve fully analyzed its performance, we’ll determine how to support it going forward.”

That’s quite rich given that the games performance already fluctuates markedly across platforms whilst running like 3/4 dried cement on some of the beefiest PC gaming rigs.

So whilst some writers like to cosy up to developers and get in their good books, there are still some of us that are still just sitting here, waiting for an actual reason that doesn’t include an excuse.

But how are you enjoying COD:AW? Have you encountered any performance dips? Shout out in the comments box,

[Source]