Call of Duty: Black Ops II to bring "disruptive innovation" says Activision
Unsurprisingly, Activision is promising the "most ambitious Call of Duty ever"
EA may think that Call of Duty is "tired" and should take a year off, but Activision certainly plans to hold nothing back. A day after the game's first trailer was unveiled during the NBA playoffs, the public relations team has gone into overdrive, promoting Black Ops II as the greatest game since... well, last year's Call of Duty of course.
If you ask Activision, the game's new graphics technology, branching story lines, non-linear missions and futuristic setting with robotics and drone warfare make Black Ops II "the most groundbreaking and visceral Call of Duty experience ever."
"Hands down, this is the most ambitious Call of Duty ever," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "We are bringing disruptive innovation to the franchise and we are doing it on several fronts. We're pushing the boundaries technologically, graphically, and from a narrative and gameplay perspective."
"At the same time, we need to stay true to the epic realism, authenticity, heart pumping adrenaline, and cinematic action that so many people love and expect from a Call of Duty game. Treyarch's vision for Call of Duty: Black Ops II will redefine the Call of Duty franchise for the future--both literally and figuratively."
"With Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the team is crafting an experience that Call of Duty fans have never seen before," added Mark Lamia, Studio Head for Treyarch. "We are challenging assumptions on every front, with the single player campaign, Zombies and multiplayer. In the campaign, we are creating a thought-provoking story that introduces branching storylines and meaningful choices that impact the narrative."
"Running in the multiplayer engine for the first time, Zombies gives players a bigger and more diverse set of gameplay experiences, as well as entirely new ways to wage war with the undead. And in multiplayer, we're embracing all skill levels and play styles to give players more ways to engage. With Call of Duty: Black Ops II, we're all in and we won't rest until we've launched nothing less than the best Call of Duty we've ever made."
The game officially launches on November 13 and will contend with other triple-A titles during the fall/holiday period like Halo 4, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Assassin's Creed III, BioShock Infinite and more. Check out the debut trailer below.
Who would have thought the age old zombie apocalypse will line the coffers of game studios around the world. Zombies should get a A star medal of honour and commendation for continued ressurection across all genres and media :)
Amusingly enough, I actually thought of Metal Gear Solid 4 while watching that trailer for the first time. The old guy narrating is expressing some of the stuff Snake was saying in that game about new weapons and the future so forth and so on...
Meh, it'll be entertaining and pretty funny in that well-done melodramatic way CoD does so well when it tries to top the first Modern Warfare's better emotional moments. I'll play through the campaign to see what's what, but I'm not going online at all, as I'm not big on running around and shooting other players in their virtual heads, innovative disruption or not.
I.D. is this year's "blast processing" by the way.
Activision Blizzard aren't devoid of "disruptive innovation" at all, I'd expect Diablo III's auction house to be exactly that. Should really shake up monestisation model for super-hardcore games and create an entirely new breed of evangelists.
But Black Ops 2? Disruptive innovation? Nah.
The innovation they claim to produce is the equivalent of taking the last watch they made, giving it a slightly different coloured casing, and adding another mini clock on the front (of which there are already 3 others). No change at the core, and just more of the same on the surface, but people will still say "hey, a new one! and it has more clocks!".
In this case, though, they're using it as a marketing buzzword. They just mean "This is incredibly new and awesome, and it's gonna blow you away!" which might be true but doesn't make it disruptive. It won't change the way the market looks at and designs video games, it'll just be a really good one (maybe). FWIW, disruptive innovation isn't always positive, at least not immediately. One could argue that the disruption of Xbox LIVE brought with it a host of problems and business practices that didn't exist on consoles previously, including day 1 patches, exploitative DLC, etc. Disruptive innovation is not a value judgement, which is how they're using it here.
Seriously.... Were are the new graphics they're talking about? And is the top view drone a new gameplay feature that's going to change the entire FPS world? Come on, stop giving money to people that get so much money to develop whatever they want, and that only use their cash to do communication and marketing in order to get pre orders...
Sorry, Im just pissed off by those guys... They don't even spend money to get some immersive animations... Like when you're climbing a ladder! If you want to make an experience, take some time to play COD MW3, then Modern warfare 1, then half life 1, and think about the differences...