Activision CEO says Headquarters social space being apart of other CoD titles would depend upon fan feedback

Sledgehammer Games is introducing a brand new social space for the very first time in Call of Duty with the new Headquarters feature in Call of Duty: WWII. SHG and Activision gave fans their first look at this new space in a trailer last week, which can be viewed here.

One of the big questions surrounding this new space is that will Headquarters, or a social space in general, be apart of future Call of Duty titles. Having it only in one, and then not coming back again till Sledgehammer Games’ next title seems like missed opportunities.

In an interview with GameInformer, Activision CEO has stated that it would depend upon fan feedback after Call of Duty: WWII launch to see whether it will be implemented in future games. There’s no point in continuing the feature forward if fans do not like it or do not use it as much.

It really depends on the response. It’s certainly something we feel the same way about; you look at it and say, “That could be a new franchise staple.” Certainly, if that becomes a daily habit, if that becomes a behavior that really catches on and the players really love, there’s obvious benefits. It’s much more satisfyingly social to be interacting with people in a 3-D environment than just over a voice and text environment. There’s a lot of fun mini-games, there’s a lot of fun engagement drivers, there’s a lot of rewards for coming back every day, so I think that it’s a very thoughtful and well thought-out design. And then you’ll see what happens when it gets in the hands of players, you know? It’s all theory until then.

Activision CEO says they want to see if the features built into the social space will work well for the Call of Duty community. Social space in Call of Duty has really been non-existent directly in-game beyond voice and text chat.

So it certainly is one of those that has the potential to transform the way the community interacts with one another. And I think it’s the right… A lot of the innovation debates are making sure that we’re aiming at the right bull’s eyes. Whether or not it succeeds or fails, it was the right problem to take a shot at solving because Call of Duty is a game that tons of people play together, and yet I would argue it’s not a tremendously social experience. Most of the time that you’re together, you’re actually playing, your hair’s on fire, and you’re moving a million miles an hour and your adrenaline’s pumping and so there’s not that sense of ability to really interact in that way we’ve come to be used to in other games. And in other platforms. In social media, and the whole world has become more comfortable socially through digital mediums. And I think it’s an area where Call of Duty can improve.

So I love the shot that we’re taking and I’m really interested to see how it goes once it gets in the hands of our players. There’s every chance it’ll catch on and every chance they’ll be like, “The text thing was faster!” [laughs] We’ll see.

SOURCE: GameInformer