The ‘Call of Duty tax’ means games media doesn’t cover COD the way it used to, Activision says
Its large audience has “become status quo” and people forget the work that goes into each entry, it’s claimed
Activision believes there’s a “Call of Duty tax” on the way the series is covered by games media these days, according to an executive.
In an interview with The Game Business, Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl was asked whether he felt that traditional games media doesn’t cover Call of Duty like it used to, and whether most of the coverage these days comes from the Call of Duty influencers and community.
Bahl replied that while he did think the series was still covered by traditional games media, he feels the fact it’s been around for so long means some have started to forget the work that goes into each entry.
“I think we get the coverage, but we call it the ‘Call of Duty tax’,” he replied. “When we’re thinking about the reviews or we’re thinking about the reception and stuff, in a lot of ways there’s obviously a lot of fandom around indie games, and excitement around, new games popping up every day on Steam.
“And I think in a lot of ways, Call of Duty has been here for a very long time. And with that, you know, people sometimes forget that there’s so much work that goes into making these games. There’s 4,500 employees here that are trying to make the best possible experience.”
Bahl added that he feels the size of the game’s audience is also often ignored, because it’s become normalised over time.
“Also how big it is, right?” he said. “I think that’s the bigger challenge, is that we have 100 million free-to-play players. We’ve sold 500 million units. It’s one of the biggest franchises of all time. And we have a billion downloads on our mobile game, which I think people tend to forget about, which is much more bigger internationally.
“So that huge audience, I think sometimes gets overlooked, or just becomes status quo. And I think the craft that goes into these games, and the dedication from the teams was something that we wanted to show this year with the marketing.
“And so it was less about us having, more of a bombastic spot that we made before, but really kind of getting behind the scenes, back to the roots of ‘how do we make our games’ and the dedication the teams have to doing that.”
Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella noted on Bluesky that the purchase intent for Modern Warfare 4, as of August, was 15% among US console and PC players, versus 21% for Black Ops 7 at the same time last year.
“Last year, disappointing performance was blamed on Game Pass inclusion,” he wrote. “Now, it’s media. When MW4 disappoints it’ll be GTA’s fault. Meanwhile, ports of Black Ops and Black Ops II were among the biggest new releases of the year.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is released next week on October 23, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC.
