Activision on Call of Duty: "You can't change the rules too much"

The Call of Duty series would lose its appeal if it were to significantly change its gameplay formula, according to Infinity Ward producer Mark Rubin. Speaking with Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Rubin said the same can be said for major sports.

"You watch sports every year, but if you changed the rules dramatically of a sport every year who would watch that? I don't think you would have as many people watching the sport," Rubin said. "Like if soccer/football were all the sudden to switch from 'OK you can't use your feet, you have to use your hands' Who'd watch that really?"

Rubin said he has no problem with the idea of a franchise evolving its gameplay over time, but this is not in the cards for Activision and Call of Duty, he said.

"You can’t change the rules too much, you have to sort of live within the boundaries that you created for yourself," Rubin said. "Other games can do that. They can do and go try out other new features and that's totally cool because as a gamer I like to play a lot of games. So I'll go out and play that open-ended open-world type game and I love it."

Overall, Rubin said the Call of Duty series will "stay with what we have perfected," that being cinematic and immersive experiences. "We are going to stick with that," he said.

Sledgehammer Games was at one point working on a third-person Call of Duty game, though this title was later "probably" canceled, as the developer moved on the Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Ghosts launches this holiday season for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Wii U. Activision will show off the game's multiplayer mode for the first time on August 14.