Tippl: Franchise fatigue is an excuse for lack of innovation

Activision COO Thomas Tippl believes that developers can continue to produce yearly franchises without consumers becoming fatigued if innovation is made a priority.

Speaking with Gamaustra at E3, Tippl said that franchise fatigue isn't something he "buys into" and because fans want more out of the Call of Duty franchise than has been provided - he expects more innovation in the series' future.

“[Franchise fatigue] is something that I have not bought into,” he said. “I think it’s an excuse for lack of innovation. If you have a great franchise and you stop innovating, then yes, you will lose your fan base.

“If you think about it, if you have a large fanbase around the property, [it gives you the opportunity] to communicate directly with them, to really understand what they love about the game and what they’d like to see in the game. You can market it much more strongly than new IP.

“There’s so much that our Call of Duty fanbase wants that we are not providing yet, that we see many, many years of innovation ahead of us.

“When people come up and tell me, ‘how can you possibly make another Call of Duty,’ I always tell them that I used to work for a company that every year had to figure out how to make a white shirt whiter - and [Procter & Gamble] have been doing that for 35 years with a product like Tide.

“You’re telling me with all the opportunities we have, and the technologies and the content ... and all the different stories, the characters that we can develop, that we can’t innovate on a franchise for 10 years? Give me a break. Then we’re just not doing our job.”

The latest iteration in the series, Black Ops, is due for release in November, with all DLC for the game hitting Xbox 360 first.