‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ Battles Against Series Decline As New Update Becomes Available
As video games become more entrenched with the idea of online multiplayer, developers must learn to constantly improve titles after launch since keeping a balanced online presence has become a selling point for many franchises. Striving to provide fans with an ever-evolving multiplayer experience, Sledgehammer Games detailed several changes that are now live on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Today’s title update focuses entirely on fixing issues and making improvements to Advanced Warfare‘s online multiplayer mode. The biggest change corrects an in-game bug that could result in players and drones to fall through the world inside many of the game’s competitive maps. Additionally, the patch also tinkered with spawn locations specifically within the “Atlas Gorge” map to provide better flow during online matches. Sledgehammer Games also deployed numerous optimizations to their servers to provide improved connectivity for playing the latest Call of Duty title while online.
In other Call of Duty news, despite the fact that many gamers are currently enjoying this year’s newest installment of the immensely popular first-person shooter, the lack of financial reports for Advanced Warfare might be a sign that the series could be in decline. According to a recent Forbes article, the business-minded publication speculated that the silence regarding game sales could be an indication that the series is struggling to keep the sales numbers it once commanded.
If Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was performing as well as the franchise had in the past, Activision Blizzard would have already likely bragged about the games initial sales. However, the publisher has not yet revealed any numbers for the new release which Forbes believes to be an indication that franchise sales are indeed in the decline.
However, that doesn’t mean that the series is in any danger. Call of Duty repeatedly enjoyed being the top-selling video game of the year as each new installment was released. Bluntly put, the popular shooter can afford to see some slight decline because there’s a long way to fall from the top.
While this news may cause investors to take action, it likely won’t affect the continued development of Call of Duty games going forward. Additionally, the perceived decline isn’t so much a commentary on Advanced Warfare in particular as it is to how gamers view the series as a whole.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out now Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. The newest title update addressing multiplayer issues is currently only available on next-gen versions of Advanced Warfare. This patch follows an previous update for Advanced Warfare that the Inquisitr detailed earlier this month.
[Images via Call of Duty]
