Call of Duty Battle Royale. Is it finally happening? I mean is it finally happening in a good way? It looks like it! Since Call of Duty Warzone has made its appearance as a huge free to play expansion. What is different from the last attempts of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to get into this genre, is that this is the first real serious attempt. With a Twitch release, as well as a Fortnite-ish approach in combination with some typical CoD features.
So why a serious approach, and what makes that this iteration will be more successful? First of all it’s founded on the latest edition of Modern Warfare, which has been seen as a landmark in the recent history of CoD. For years, the quality of the games was dwindling. With the 2019 release of CoD:MW, the game has gone back to the essential. Back to the original, cutting all the excess additions that have been added over the years. Without calling it a remake and adjusting it to the modern era of gaming. The esports competitive community has noticed the resurgence of the classic Call of Duty times and have been making a comeback. The timing for a Battle Royale addition could not have been better. What is more is that this expansion is a standalone for anyone free to play (or with a Bonus!).
Was the world waiting for Call of Duty: Warzone?
Despite all the positive attention. Was the world really waiting for another battle royale game in the spirit of Fortnite? In other words; isn’t CoD a bit late to the party? While the game is largely what we are used to from Battle Royale games (getting dropped on an island, looking for loot, island closes in on you), this game has those tactical additions that are typical for Call of Duty. Including tactical teamplay and the addition of revive tokens. What is more is that the Island can host up to 150 players. There is also an included Gulag section where players that have been shot can play a 1v1 to have a second chance. A pretty awesome inclusion if you ask us.
How long will the success of Call of Duty Battle Royale last?
Interesting to us is the esports scene. For an esports scene to flourish, a game has to ‘survive’ at least for a while. Does Call of Duty Warzone stand a chance? We think it does. The trend we see is that when a new game survives the first few months (which this game, based on the response of the players, probably does), it tends to last for long. We can take Blizzard’s approach to releasing the sequel to Overwatch as similar to Warzone. It is all about catering a competitive player base and balancing the game as if it was a clockwork. The next Call of Duty iteration is experiencing development difficulties and we expect it might last until 2022 that it will see a release. This means that Modern Warfare and Warzone thus have a good chance of growing into a serious esports. If there is enough support by Activision of course, though the willingness to publish on Twitch is a good sign!
