In a new interview with Newsweek, Activision CEO spoke briefly and quite openly about Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the reception surrounding that game.

Infinite Warfare was one of the lowest selling Call of Duty games in history, as it was the third consecutive Call of Duty game to take the franchise to the future, but the first to take Call of Duty to space.

The reception last year to Infinite Warfare was one of the worst Activision ever saw for Call of Duty, with over 3 million dislikes to the original reveal trailer for Infinite Warfare. Although the game did end up #1 on charts, it was still behind previous Call of Duty games — and Call of Duty: WWII doubled the sales of Infinite Warfare at launch.

Activision CEO said that they took too many risks in Infinite Warfare, and it did not feel like Call of Duty.

“When you study longstanding franchises, it feels very risky to change them sometimes. But, in my opinion, the biggest risk you can take is not taking risks. With Infinite Warfare we found the guard rail [of creativity]. At the end of the day it just didn’t feel enough like Call Of Duty. If anything, [Infinite Warfare] just amplified the demand for boots-on-the-ground that much more.”

Activision CEO also commented on Infinite Warfare’s missteps in February during their conference call, saying that the title did not reach the balance of innovation and staying true to the franchise.

SOURCE: Newsweek