The Call of Duty rumour mill is spinning off the charts, with many reputable news sites stating that the upcoming title Black Ops 4 won’t feature a traditional Campaign.
CharlieIntel, Polygon, and Kotaku (amongst others) have reported that the game will instead focus on Multiplayer and Zombies, and it has been hinted that Raven Software are developing a Battle Royale mode that will also be included. This was reportedly due to the story being too “outlandish”, which is believable after the events of Black Ops 3. It’s also just as disappointing as the game was rumoured to be in a modern setting, something which Treyarch are yet to explore.
What is also alarming is that the Call of Duty series now has a three year development cycle, so if the Campaign was being worked on Activision has essentially cancelled it two years in. If it wasn’t being worked on, then Treyarch have a lot to do on May 17 when the game is revealed to the public, when it comes to showing off their world and how Multiplayer and Zombies fit into it.
This rumour will not please long-time fans of the series’ Campaign modes, as they were often highlights themselves, for example, Modern Warfare and Black Ops would have not been the games that they are had it not been for their epic story. These intense, narrative-driven single player offerings set up the Multiplayer modes of all previous games in the series, so it will be interesting to see if Treyarch can do the same here, if one is not included.
You would have had to have been living under a rock to not know how successful games like PUBG and Fortnite have become, popularising the ‘Battle Royale’ genre. This is something which Activision will have been monitoring, even trailing the mode out themselves in Call of Duty Online (available in China). The genre is yet to solidify itself in the market however, and could simply fade out by the time that Black Ops 4 is released on October 12.
The problem is would people play it with other popular alternatives already available? Would it further segregate the player base? and is it ultimately worth sacrificing a staple of the Call of Duty series for? The correct answer to this (if it’s not already obvious) is no. Call of Duty’s Campaign mode is still incredibly popular, with 92% of 102,971 Xbox One players completing the first mission (at least) in 2016.
The prospect that the Campaign hasn’t been cancelled and is ‘postponed’ is also quite scary, as this alludes to Activision potentially adding it as DLC. While this is preferable to the alternative of simply not having one, it pushes Call of Duty further into the ‘free to play’ model, which is something that I would personally hate to see. Only time will tell if there is any truth to these rumours, but we will definitely be tuning in on May 17 to find out for sure.
What do you think to these rumours? Let us know in the comments or over on Facebook & Twitter.
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