Why are hundreds of thousands disliking the COD: Infinite Warfare trailer?

The announcement trailer for Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has become the subject of some sort of online anger campaign.

The trailer, which went live on May 2nd, has at the time of writing amassed 311,743 dislikes on YouTube. And that number is rapidly climbing. Likes, meanwhile, stand at 178,261, and are climbing more slowly.

While the phenomenon has won coverage at the likes of Kotaku and Eurogamer, no-one seems to be entirely sure why the internet is piling on so negatively.

Perusing message boards and forums suggest there’s a general level of disquiet at the future setting and its similarity to many other military shooters. There’s also some annoyance at the fact that the Modern Warfare Remaster cannot be purchased separately to Infinite Warfare.

Of course, the bigger they are the more people like to hate, and as one of the biggest game franchises on the planet, COD is accustomed to getting more than its fair share of hate and criticism. But this has been the case for a while now, and Infinite Warfare is getting a far more hostile reception than its recent predecessors.

Perhaps the problem is that people are frustrated that they’re being forced to buy the game and aren’t free to simply ignore it if it isn’t for them. Oh wait.

Here’s the trailer: