Vanguard Xbox

Activision Blizzard has released its big annual report as we move into the new financial year, and the company has made some pretty stark admissions. These mostly relate to last year's Call of Duty release in Vanguard, which the company says "didn't meet out expectations".

As for who's to blame for these shortcomings? Well, refreshingly, Activision mostly blames itself. The Call of Duty publisher says that Vanguard not meeting expectations was "primarily due to our own execution". Basically, the company knows Vanguard was a step down in overall quality.

However, it's not just the quality of the final release that Activision feels is important. The game's World War II setting also takes some of the blame, as the company believes players weren't really after that experience again. Developer Sledgehammer's last CoD game was also set in World War II, with 2017's Call of Duty: WWII.

Vanguard Plane

As for the future of the series, well, Activision will no-doubt be hoping for an uptick in sales and player numbers. 2022's game is returning to one of the series' most popular eras with Modern Warfare II, and given that 2019's Modern Warfare reboot was the most successful CoD of all time, it's hard to believe the sequel won't perform extremely well this holiday season.

What do you make of Activision's comments? Surprised to hear them take most of the blame? Let us know your thoughts!

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[source ign.com]