Some developers were not intimidated by the famous franchise and were ready to compete for players' attention.
While some developers pushed their releases away from Call of Duty, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim team decided to release alongside Modern Warfare 3 (2011) — despite being predicted to fail.
Pete Hines, former head of marketing at Bethesda, shared his memories in a recent interview with dbltap — the approach to choosing release dates was challenged even during the Oblivion era, but they still managed to succeed then:
«If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that "Morrowind will never work on Xbox"….or "Oh, Skyrim won't survive competing with Call of Duty", "Everyone will be playing Call of Duty. No one will buy your game."
And I just said: "I understand it's a big brand, but their game isn't better. I'll stand against them. I'll spend [marketing money] against these guys. I'll never spend nearly as much [as they do], and I can still win."
We were told not to release Oblivion in May. "No one releases games in the spring, it will never work." But we ended up doing great».
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was released on November 8, 2011 — a few days before Skyrim. Nevertheless, Bethesda's game not only "didn't fail" but is still popular today and actively supported by the mod community.
