According to Gaming Bolt , the Call of Duty franchise has long been plagued by backlash and criticism from critics and fans alike. Now, the backlash continues to target the franchise's latest game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III . In fact, it's been called the series' worst major game to date.

Modern Warfare III currently has a Metacritic score of 50 after 33 reviews, which is the lowest ever for a mainstream Call of Duty game. On OpenCritic, the game has a similarly low aggregate score of 56 after 30 reviews. The second lowest on Metacritic is the PC version of Call of Duty: Ghosts , with a score of 68 after 14 reviews.

In fact, even when all Call of Duty spin-offs are weighed against the review scale, Modern Warfare III 's reception still paints a grim picture, as it remains the second worst-reviewed game in the series of all time, behind only Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified , which was released for the PS Vita in 2012 and has a Metacritic score of 33 after 88 reviews.

Last week, it was reported that Modern Warfare III was developed in just 16 months amid the widespread crisis just so that Activision could launch it as a big game of the year. The original plan was to release it as an expansion to the 2022 game. However, the project's lead developer Sledgehammer Games has denied reports of rushed development.

It's unclear whether the multiplayer shooter's poor reception and poor marketing have had any impact on its sales. In the UK, Modern Warfare III topped the weekly physical charts, although sales were still 25% lower than last year's Modern Warfare II .