1. It Sells Too Many
So far, as expected, Black Ops II has sold like delicious FPS hot-cakes: according to Activision, the game made an enormous $500million in its first day of release making it the biggest launch of the year, by their reckoning. Naturally that has led to the intelligent commentary that it's just sheep, under 12s and idiots with no imagination who have flocked to their local retailers to get their hands on a copy - because how else could you explain such a jaw-dropping number of sales on the day of launch? So, does that mean it's for idiots? Verdict: Well, in a word no. No matter how much the cynics, snobs and hipsters will tell you, popularity has never been a sign of a lack of quality. The unfortunate result of Call of Duty's success as a franchise (and indeed most franchises that bring out regular or even semi-regular new additions) and Activision's success in making the games accessible, is that there has been the inevitable push-back that results in any mass popularity. But Call of Duty sells well every year because the games - or at least elements of them - are loved every year. Regardless of what the troll-heavy user reviews you'll find online might suggest, nobody buys games every year from a franchise that repeatedly lets them down just to make sure they're still rubbish: consumerism simply doesn't work like that, and players will simply turn their back on franchises instead. That is why previously successful franchises die, it isn't a trick of the market. It isn't idiots who buy Call of Duty games, it is fans, and the two are not the same thing, regardless of what COD haters might suggest.