The list of COD Killers that have fizzled out is an ever-growing one.
Titanfall
XDefiant
Homefront
Killzone series
LawBreakers
CrossfireX
Destiny
The Finals
Medal of Honor (2010 reboot)
There are probably more games you could add to this list but you get the point.
I’m not going to make this about XDefiant because you must have seen the headline a thousand times by now, but as of today 6/3/2025 XDefiant will be going offline due to low player count and not meeting financial goals (both the same issue).
What I actually want to discuss is the term “COD KILLER.” It came from a time when COD was king on console. Everyone would argue what was better COD, Battlefield, maybe Halo? Any new FPS shooter that came out was dubbed the new COD killer. This term made sense at the time because you were trying to dethrone the king. In today’s time I don’t think it works anymore. More people are open-minded when it comes to playing a variety of games. A lot of people today play more than just one game, back in the day you would find your game and pretty much stick with it. If you were a COD player you probably didn’t play much Halo at the same time. Obviously there were people who did but the rate at which people would do it today is higher. It’s hard to dethrone a king that doesn’t exist.
So I guess the only COD killer we will ever get is time and that’s all we can ask for. This is a good problem to have. Now is the best time to be a “gamer.” We have so many choices today. Great new indie games launch every day. Services like Xbox Game Pass make it affordable to play a wide variety of games. It’s a new era of gaming that is shifting in favor of the players.
