Call of Duty is the largest and most successful video game franchise and a household name that gamers and non-gamers can easily recognize. Call of Duty as a franchise started back in 2003, but didn't really become what we know it as today until 2007 with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This entry opened the floodgates of success and set a foundation for first-person multiplayer shooters in the world of consoles. Activision is the owner and publisher of Call of Duty and created the rotating schedule of yearly releases of the series accompanied by one of their 3 major studios committed to the franchise. Call of Duty was one of the first series to implement this system where 3 developers are working on an individual game in the series and they release on a staggered yearly basis. This gives each team a 3-year cycle to make the best game they can while also making sure Activision has a new major release in the series every single year since 2007. The newest entry, Call of Duty: WW2, is set to take the series back to its roots in a more gritty and grounded style series vets have been hoping to return. It releases on November 3rd, 2017 and looks to delve into the heartbreaking, devastating, and chest pounding events of World War II. Let's take a look at some of the craziest facts in this long running series. We're going to dive into everything from marathon gaming sessions to obscure releases and canceled entries you've probably never heard of.
20 Canceled Call Of Duty Tactics Game
Remember that Call of Duty sequel that never saw the light of day? It wasn't the only canceled game in the series. Another misfire was a game called Call of Duty Tactics by developer Vicarious Visions. Call of Duty Tactics was set to be a top down strategy game set in the World War 2 II in the Call of Duty universe. Little is known outside of that about the game, so there is a ton to speculate. Any real-time strategy or tactics game featuring some of the franchise's most notable characters might be interesting. Vicarious Visions is a talented studio so the game must not have felt right for the series specifically or maybe Activision just felt it was too far of a departure from what made the series a hit. Vicarious Visions has most recently released the surprising commercial blockbuster nostalgia trip otherwise known as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
19 North Korea Plays Call of Duty?
Considering our current situation with North Korea, it should come as no surprise that the country and its leaders have spared no expense to create propaganda shifting the message in their favor. Kim Jong-Un is a dictator and these type of leaders will do anything in their power to remain in a position of strength and fortify their messaging and approach. In their infamous anti-USA propaganda video North Korea decided to include a scene from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 depicting New York City on fire. They were doing so in hopes of helping to get across the message that one day the United States will fall and hopefully it will be at the hands of the North Korean military. Though it's a weird situation overall you have to applaud their ingenuity in this circumstance.
18 Longest Gaming Marathon Featured Black Ops 2
Have you ever wanted to see how long you could play video games for? We've all wondered how long we could go, pulling all night marathons trying to play through a story or maybe even rank up in multiplayer. Well, one player decided to try and set the world record for the longest video game marathon. Okan Kaya was determined to set the record in 2012 while only playing one game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Kaya managed to play for over 135 consecutive hours. The Guinness Book of World Records allowed Kaya a 10-minute break for every hour played. He decided to stack up the time and even have enough collected to take a nap in the middle of the marathon. One couldn't even imagine the delirious nature his mind was in following the completion of such a feat.
17 China's Exclusive Call Of Duty Game
At this point, I think anyone who is remotely familiar with video games knows what an exclusive is and how uncommon they tend to be, especially 3rd party franchises. The Chinese entertainment market is strict but impressively large. Call of Duty Online is a free-to-play game that's exclusive to mainland China. It seems to be a mixture of multiple games in the series including Modern Warfare and Black Ops. Since it is a free game, it makes a majority of its revenue from in-game micro transactions that include different guns, skins, and uniforms. The game also features its own exclusive zombie mode, Cyborg Rising. Activision understands that you must adapt to be successful and it's interesting to see them commit in this way to a market that isn't a primary focus usually of Western publishers and developers.
16 People Are Addicted To Call Of Duty
We all know that Call of Duty is a franchise that sells tremendously well. It seems that there really is no end in sight to this runaway train of a success that releases every single year. Call of Duty doesn't only boast impressive sales numbers, their player base is also known to log in an astounding amount of hours on a daily basis. Activision has stated that on average over 2000 years of Call of Duty are played a day. Yes, I said years, that wasn't a typo. It's one thing to have a series that sells like crazy every time a new entry is released. It's a completely different thing when your player base is dedicated enough to commit lengthy play sessions on a daily basis. Activision is a company that knows who their audience is despite the divisiveness of some of the games they publish.
15 There Was A Sequel That Never Happened
With a series as persistent and dominating as Call of Duty, you're bound to have your fair share of cancellations and spinoffs go awry. Call of Duty: Combined Forces is a canceled entry in the franchise that was set to be a direct sequel to the first ever console release for the series, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, which released in 2004 on Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox. According to sources, the games' development was canceled because they felt the costs in order to finish the game were too expensive. It's always fascinating to look at how these type of decisions could have shaped and changed the outcome of the series. Throughout the short history of video games, there are hundreds of decisions that shaped the future of respective franchises in very positive and negative ways that weren't seen as such monumental choices at the point of inception.
14 Call Of Duty Mobile Was A Failure
Call of Duty is an annual franchise that at the very least releases one new game in the series a year. There have been multiple spin-offs and mobile entries in the series that are less known, but none as forgotten as N-Gage Call of Duty. If you're not familiar with the N-Gage, it was Nokia's attempt at a mobile console system that didn't necessarily fare too well in the open market. Plenty of publishers and developers were willing to experiment and place a bet on the quirky device, but none bigger than Activision. The weirdest thing is that the game featured a single-player campaign as well as 8-man multiplayer matches that could be setup and accessed via Bluetooth technology. Props to Activision for their willingness to make Call of Duty as access friendly as possible.
13 Modern Warfare 2 Had A Space Mission?
Many people are excited for the release of Call of Duty: WW2 in 2017 because fans have grown tired of the space conflicts and over the top tech that has been featured heavily in the last 4 installments or so. It's easy to track this transition seeing as the series' fascination with space based missions started with Call of Duty: Ghosts back in 2013. Surprisingly this wasn't the first game in the series that was planned to feature space missions, literally taking the series to new heights. Modern Warfare 2 initially included the plan to feature a mission entirely set in space aboard the International Space Station. Fans will remember a short interactive experience in the game featuring an astronaut. This was supposed to be an entire mission but was considered to be too far-fetched for the Call of Duty franchise. How ironic.
12 Hidden Celebrity Voice Actor Easter Egg
Remember those famous actors we talked about who voiced characters in the single-player campaigns? Well, Will Arnett is another big star that happened to lend his voice to a Call of Duty game, specifically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Unfortunately, unlike Elba and Olyphant, Arnett was relegated to doing additional background voices of soldiers throwing grenades and busting down barricades. Arnett was approached by Infinity Ward to appear in the game but because it was already so late in the development process Arnett was stuck with the voice work previously mentioned. Fortunately for Arnett his voice acting career didn't stall there, he most recently voiced Batman in the Batman Lego Movie. Arnett's a great voice actor that I hope one day helms the voice of the main Call of Duty protagonist.
11 The Many-Faced God?
Everyone who watches Game of Thrones is familiar with Arya and her experiences with the many-faced god. She wasn't the first person to encounter this weird magic trick, however. In Call of Duty 2, there was a prominent character named Dimitri Volsky. He was a tactical leader as well as a decent magician. During one of the levels, players run into Volsky wearing a different uniform and a different face as well. Though this is probably just an oversight that happened to be overlooked, it's cool to envision that this was a tactical move by Volsky to hide his identity using his magician skill set. With a series that sees the attention, it does know it would be fascinating to see a mistake like this happen in a new release in the Call of Duty series.
10 Idris Elba Was In Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty is a franchise that not only brings in numerous celebrities to star in their horde style modes such as Zombies, they tend to feature prominent actors in their main campaign as well. Idris Elba and Timothy Olyphant both had parts in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Elba played a character by the name of Truck, and Olyphant manned the voice of Grinch. Though the single-player campaigns tend to be solid, it doesn't seem like a majority of the massive fan base ever even boots it up. It's a real shame considering the budget and talent that Activision and the respective developer tend to thrust into these experiences never gets the full attention of a game audience that posts astronomical sales figures on a yearly basis.
9 Is The Call of Duty: WW2 Special Edition Worth It?
We're all familiar with the ludicrous items Activision tends to include in the special edition of each Call of Duty entry. Players have had the opportunity to get tons of gadgets and tech. For the release of Call of Duty: WW2, it seems that the special edition is headed in a more practical direction. The special edition of Call of Duty: WW2 will come with an era-authentic style backpack as well as some other goodies. This makes sense considering the series is making a huge shift back to its original roots. Players have been frustrated with Call of Duty's evolution into a more sci-fi feeling shooter and have wanted to see it return to it's more boots on the ground roots.
8 Dictator Treated Unfairly By Activision
Many stories in entertainment are based in reality and real-world events because they help shape and provide context and motivation for the storyteller. Just as often we see people upset with the way historical events and people are portrayed and feel as though their character and actions are being misinterpreted. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a game that features a very visceral, emotional, and thrilling story centered around Raul Menendez, the game's primary antagonist. Well, former Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega felt that this character was used without authorization for use of his likeness. Noriega also felt that the acts committed by Menendez in the game weren't accurate to Noriega's and felt as though it was a defamation of character. Unfortunately for Noriega the lawsuit never went anywhere, and the case died.
7 Who's The Main Character In Call Of Duty?
When your franchise releases at least one new entry every year for the last 10 years you need to know how to effectively tell stories without running the risk of character repetitiveness. To fight this Activision has 3 different major studios working on an entry at any given time in separate story lines. Call of Duty is a series that has featured over 100 playable characters which is an absolutely astonishing feat. This includes the likes of Danny Trejo and many other celebrities who've had the fortune of being featured in Call of Duty's zombie and horde modes throughout the years. Many franchises bank on one notable character in hopes of creating greater recognition and loyalty. Because so much of Call of Duty's success is based on multiplayer they're able to take risks and change stories dynamically.
6 There Was A Call of Duty Card Game?
As we talked about with N-Gage Call of Duty, Activision isn't afraid to put the franchise in every possible place it can. That being said, it should come as no surprise that Upper Deck Entertainment worked on a card game that was heavily inspired by Call of Duty and its multiplayer gameplay. It was a 2-player game that featured players using squad decks to deploy 3 soldiers before using specified action cards to turn the tide of battle. The card game went through tons of demos and overhauls but unfortunately never saw the light of day. Upper Deck officially canceled the game in 2008 with no primary reason listed. There might come a day where a Call of Duty card game actually exists, but expect it to revolve around their insanely popular zombie horde mode.
5 Call Of Duty Helped The Rolling Stones Stay Relevant
Call of Duty: Black Ops ushered in a new era for the series in a number of ways. It also helped usher in a classic rock band into the ears of a whole new generation of people. Black Ops featured two Rollings Stones songs, those being Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil. According to Activision, they had to fly and meet the Rolling Stones in person in order to acquire the rights to use the songs. Though each party could have made a respective case as to why they were the more important and beneficial side of the deal, it seemed that it paid huge dividends for both parties. The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter exceeded over 11,000 sales the week after the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Sympathy for the Devil also saw a spike in sales as well.
4 Call Of Duty Is Too Violent
An odd and often incorrect thought is that Call of Duty has always been ultra violent and adult oriented. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was actually the first game in the series to feature an M rating. This was probably due to the mature content in the campaign and the amount of gratuitous violence throughout. Modern Warfare wasn't released until 2007 and was obviously the 4th game in the series. The more mature rating can also be tied to the jump to current day war where the implications and ramifications of war-based actions could have a more serious effect on the psyche of younger players. Call of Duty is a series that is often used as a political tool against video game violence, so its history in terms o ratings is utterly fascinating.
3 Japan Censored Modern Warfare 2 In The Weirdest Way
So, we've talked about Call of Duty's ratings and how they drastically changed in 2007. The follow up to 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, was front and center in terms of video game violence. The game features a mission titled 'No Russian' which features the user-controlled player having the ability to gun down innocent civilians at an airport in hopes of infiltrating a Russian terrorist group as an undercover agent. Players can choose to not shoot or even skip the level entirely. In Russia, the level was entirely cut from the video game whereas in Germany and Japan versions players were forced to restart the level if they killed civilians. Infinity Ward knew the level was going to be controversial so they went the extra mile to make workarounds for those uncomfortable with the actions taking place.
2 Call Of Duty Sells Fast...Real Fast
Call of Duty is known for consistently selling millions and millions of copies every year so it should come as no surprise that an entry in the series was the fastest selling video game of all-time until Grand Theft Auto V destroyed the mark. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 not only sold 8.8 million copies in its first day, its total revenue eclipsed James Cameron's Avatar, which is the highest grossing movie at the box office. Over the last couple of years Call of Duty has seen a slight plateau in sales but considering its monstrous numbers year over year it's still in a very solid place. It seems at this point that the only games that can consistently compete with Call of Duty are those released by Rockstar Games.
1 How Many Copies Sold?!?
Numerous times throughout this article I've mentioned how Call of Duty as a franchise has been super successful commercially and dominates every year. Let's talk about how well it's sold all together. It has managed to sell over 250 million copies over its 14 years, and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Call of Duty has several games that have eclipsed the 20 million unit mark, and honestly, it seems that we could see another rise in sales if people take to this familiar direction the franchise is headed in. Activision knows that it has an audience, their goal now is to make sure those millions of players are interesting enough to take the plunge by listening to feedback and moving in the appropriate directions.