Activision recently announced that new developer Sledgehammer would develop this year’s annual installment in the “Call of Duty” series. Activision has long been criticized by fans for its business model of annualizing the series and often for the lack of change within each installment.

This raises a pressing issue in the future of video games: The rise of shorter annual installments encourages video games that lack depth. Compared to the long development time of the “Grand Theft Auto” series – a span of five years between installments – the shortcomings of Activision’s business model become apparent. Even as sales have flourished, the amount of creativity has dwindled.

A comparison in the film industry would be the annual installments of horror movies that are churned out relentlessly every year. For instance, “Saw,” an initial clever, if not entirely original, movie, suffered a significant loss in quality as each installment came out each year. Likewise, Activision and other publishers risk running their franchises into the ground if they adopt similar practices.

One of the problems is the risk of over-exposure rather than practicing moderation. Often, less is more when it comes to developing a stable and safe source of income. Rather than giving a brief respite in between games, studios like Activision are flooding the market with yearly upgrades on top of bimonthly downloadable content. Instead of allowing the anticipation and excitement to build and grow, these studios have made their games a staple, a constant in the year.

Fans of “Grand Theft Auto” were at a fever pitch after five years of waiting, resulting in the largest-selling launch day for a video game ever. Likewise, an important selling point for the “Grand Theft Auto” series was the amount of change and depth the developer brought to the series between installments.

“Call of Duty” has recently felt stagnant on the creative front. Sure, certain things have been changed and rearranged, but for the most part each game has felt identical. Not that a massive overhaul is needed, but some spark of creativity or inventiveness would be a nice change for the series.

Activision alone cannot be blamed as the only publisher to follow this model. The “Assassin’s Creed” series has moved toward annualized installments, and I feel that it has harmed the series as a whole. The “Assassin’s Creed 3” storyline felt disjointed and didn’t really follow the narrative arc of the past games. Likewise, “Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag,” which came out a year later, almost felt like a different series completely. Rather than feeling like the natural progression the series would have taken, the annualizing of the series feels more like a cash grab.

While the annualizing of video game series certainly makes sense in a short-term business plan, I think that it will ultimately be more harmful to the industry, resulting in a flooded market with very similar games and little creativity.