Gamestop's VP of merchandising has put the kibosh on Call of Duty not being its blockbuster self this year.

"Call of Duty is an entertainment juggernaut and cultural phenomenon. We are excited for the upcoming release of the new installment of this blockbuster franchise, Call of Duty: Ghosts," said Gamestop exec. Bob Puzon. "We look forward to celebrating the worldwide November launch of this great game that is on track to be the most pre-ordered title of the year."

The statement by the mega retailer comes as a slight surprise, given the annualized release of the series had yet to show fatigue, especially in the face of next week's Grand Theft Auto 5 launch.

Last month, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg was quite clear that pre-orders for Ghosts were "well below the record-setting pace set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 last year."

"Our quantitative consumer research indicates that hesitation amongst past COD pre-orderers is primarily due to not knowing which platform they will be playing on, which is natural at this time in the console transition," said Hirshberg recently, referring to the imminent launches of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.