It’s sad to look back at 2014 and realize that Activision had the keys to an extremely successful franchise and didnt choose to revitalize their successful titles that were released from 2007 to 2013. When the new engine was introduced with Advanced Warfare, the industry was obsessed with the idea that "boots on the ground" shooters were a relic of the past. Instead of leaning into the identity that made Call of Duty a household name, the developers spent the better part of a decade chasing the jetpack and advanced movement trend while the original games were allowed to gather dust while we experimented with mechanics that many fans never actually wanted.
Now, Imagine an alternate reality where Activision spent 2014 through 2020 systematically remastering their heavy hitters. We could have started strong with a standalone COD4 remaster in 2014, World at War remastered in 2015. By 2016 we would have hit with a full Modern Warfare 2 remaster with a functional, modern multiplayer instead of Infinite Warfare. The following year, being 2017, would have brought us Black Ops Remastered, 2018 would have brought us MW3 Remastered. The momentum would have peaked in 2019 with a Black Ops 2 remaster, setting the stage for the most ambitious payoff of all in 2020 being Ghosts Remastered and Ghosts 2.
Rather than the franchise feeling exhausted, we would have seen the release of Ghosts 2 bundled with a remaster of the original and improved upon where its original iteration failed. Imo, Ghosts was a game ahead of its time just heavily flawed; a 2020 sequel would have refined the MP, rewrote the campaign a slight bit and put an end to that infamous cliffhanger and polished the "Extinction" mode into a true rival for Zombies.
It would have been a really amazing decade but instead, we got a decade of "identity crisis" for the franchise. We spent years watching COD try to be Titanfall, then try to be Destiny, and eventually try to be a Hero Shooter. While some of those games had their moments, we lost what defined the Golden Era. What do u guys think?