Is Call of Duty Killing Itself?

Written by: Bryce L. Jackson

In the words said by ESPN Soccer Analyst Taylor Twellman after the United States failed to qualify for the World Cup, “What are we doing? What are we doing?!”

Yes, Activision, What are we doing? The leaks behind the impending Call of Duty Black Ops 4 release are concerning and disheartening. First off, there will be no single player which has been an anchor of every Call of Duty game up to now. Rumors said that the campaign was so far out there that the company said they needed to retool the campaign or just axe it. With Call of Duty uncharacteristically moving their release date to October, they axed it. 

Then, there are whispers that the playtesters’ reviews of the multiplayer mode are dreadful and “not fun”. They introduced some sort of hero-based system likened to the Specialist classes they had in Black Ops 3 but they went further with it to the point where they likened it to Overwatch. What?!

Finally there is the Battle Royale inclusion. Because of the success of PUBG and Fortnite, Activision wants to cash in on gaming’s biggest current trend. But the mode is not even going to be technically be part of BO4. There is supposedly going to be a separate code that you enter and the mode will operate in a separate client hosted by Raven Software rather than from BO4’s servers at Treyarch. At this point, I fear for the COD franchise. With talk of the remaster of Modern Warfare 2 but only the single player, I can almost believe that they will wrap this in with whatever amalgamation of parts they put together for the release of BO4 and COD Royale to cover all their bases with fans. This won’t work. Look at the Infinite Warfare/Modern Warfare Remastered debacle. 

Activision is too stubborn to do this and dedicated to the consistent conveyer belt of COD games, but they need to take a page from Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed and take a year off and do things the right way rather than release a rushed and jumbled mess. Fans have every right to be concerned and nervous of the upcoming title. There are too many unknown variables and to many negative views coming from reputable sources to believe that this release will be anything but a disaster. Prove me wrong Activision or else all those edgy gamers that love to call games dead will actually be right this time.