Modern warfare sucks – the crisis in first-person shooter games

Call of Duty, one of the biggest franchises in gaming, is bundling its new title with a remastered version of an old one. What does it say about the state of the genre?

Earlier this week, Activision announced the latest title in its multi-gazillion-selling Call of Duty series. Subtitled Infinite Warfare - a level of titular hyperbole only previously explored by Marvel films and pay-per-view wrestling events - it takes the action into the far future, and more importantly, into space. The teaser trailer is a bewildering opera of explosions, zero-G dogfights and sociopathic astronaut melee combat - so it should have dominated online discussion among shooter fans for at least a few hours.

But Activision did something unexpected. It announced that an intricately remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare would be shipping with special editions of the game. While all subsequent Call of Duty titles have longingly harked back to this absolutely seminal FPS title, none so far have more-or-less relied on it for a publicity push. The problem is, Modern Warfare seemed to attract more excitement and discussion than Infinite Warfare. In that moment, it's arguable the first-person shooter, as a big budget, mainstream concern, crossed over into the nostalgia industry.