text: The rumors of Call of Duty's death may have been exaggerated. The most recent installment, Call of Duty: Ghosts, failed to produce the annual "biggest entertainment launch in history" headline, but that doesn't mean it isn't a major cash cow for publisher Activision and the most powerful force in AAA console gaming. On a recent investors call, the company announced that Ghosts is the best-selling game on both Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, eclipsing even the much-hyped exclusives Titanfall and inFAMOUS: Second Son.
  It leads one to suspect that the less-stratospheric-than-usual day one sales may have had more to do with generation straddling than the failure of the game to live up to its predecessors. Ghosts came out on previous-gen before either the Xbox One or the PS4 launched, meaning that anyone waiting to pick up the game on a current-gen console likely waited until a while after launch to register that sale. Call of Duty: Ghosts was widely criticized for a lackluster single-player campaign but, as usual when it comes to the symphony of criticism surrounding this franchise, it didn't appear to matter.
  It puts the franchise in a good position for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the first game designed primarily for Xbox One/PS4 and by all early impressions, a genuine reimagining of the franchise for the modern industry. There's a new engine under the hood for the first time in a long while, which could bring some lapsed fans back into the fold. The Xbox One and PS4 currently have an install base with a higher percentage of hardcore gamers than in the previous generation, and those gamers care a lot about visuals -- it's up to this new title to bring a new feel and look to what some have called a tired franchise. As always, the presence of Kevin Spacey never hurts.
  Activision also announced that while Call of Duty: Ghosts was the second best selling game in Europe and North America in first quarter 2014, the company's Skylanders: Swap Force took the top spot, helping to paint a pretty rosy picture for this hit factory. The company is currently investing an unprecedented $500 million in Destiny, an online shooter from the studio behind the Halo series. While it's hard to imagine that Destiny could provide a return on that colossal investment within the year, Activision is treating the game as a long-term investment, likely to take the MMO spot in its roster as World of Warcraft subscriptions continue to slide.