It seems that Activision’s popular shooter series Call of Duty will not be receiving the warmest reception when it releases later this year.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was announced earlier this week to tepid applause. Looking at the YouTube video for the latest reveal trailer, gamers are not to thrilled with the new game. It’s possible that franchise fatigue is setting in, as there has been a new Call of Duty game every year since 2007. Activision did announce that Infinite Warfare would be bundled with a remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which is beloved by fans.
As of publishing, the video has more than 9.2 million views, with 204,258 likes and 475,900 dislikes. Many of the comments express dissatisfaction with where the series has been heading. Since its more realistic roots with Modern Warfare, the series has been getting steadily crazier, and is currently pursuing sci-fi-inspired technology themes. Another reason for the dislikes is the fact thatthe Modern Warfare re-master will not be sold separately, meaning that if gamers want to relive the glory of the 2007 hit, they’ll need to pay the Infinite Warfare ransom.
While the Call of Duty series does have its fair share of critics, the games tend to sell phenomenally well. But the number of dislikes this reveal trailer has received is not at all par for the course. Compared to previous reveal trailers, Infinite Warfare seems to really have struck a nerve, and not a good one. The last Call of Duty game, Black Ops III, sits at over 22 million views, with 394k likes to 79k dislikes. The one prior to that, Advanced Warfare, featuring Kevin Spacey, has over 30 million views with 222k likes to 50k dislikes.
Franchise fatigue is definitely real. Gamers may have grown tired of the relentless Call of Duty push this past decade. Other popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed have decided to stop the annual release schedule in hopes of creating some breathing room for consumers. If things go poorly for this iteration of Call of Duty, it will be interesting to see what Activision does to increase consumer confidence.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.