2020 will be an interesting year forCall of Duty, for a number of reasons. Plenty of rumors and leaks about this year’s entry involve tons of conflicting information about what’s next for the franchise. Whether it’s going to be based on the Cold War, or even part of theBlack Opsseries altogether, has been up for debate the last few months. Some rumors have pointed a future battle royale title/mode coming in the franchise’s future, but that poses a problem forCall of Duty: Warzone.
ConsideringWarzone’s massive popularity since release, it’s very unlikely Infinity Ward will end support for the battle royale just a year out. Battle royale games likeFortnitehave proven that long-term support can prove fruitful, soWarzoneshouldn’t go away anytime soon. That being said, with a newCall of Dutygame on the horizon for 2020, many are wondering if this game will get a battle royale as well. What does that mean forWarzone’s future if another battle royale comes out a year later? Due to the possibility of conflict, there’s a few waysWarzonecould be shaped and changed by 2020’s mainlineCall of Dutytitle.
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A Possible Black Ops Tease
Several corroborated rumors and leaks have confirmed that there’ssome kind of Cold War/Black Opstie-in coming toWarzonein the near future.Warzoneinitially planned for this crossover/meta-game ahead of time, with the placement of closed off bunkers all across the Verdansk battle royale map. With the last few updates there’s been an entire meta-narrative and quest added for these bunkers, which became publicly accessible as of the beginning of last week. Every bunker has tons of rare weapons and powerful equipment within them that players can find, and occasionally an interesting telephone message in Russian.
Listening to the message in-game unlocks the quest to open the eleventh bunker, the biggest one in Verdansk in the north-most sector. Within bunker 11 is not onlynew loot and the Mud Dauber SMG blueprint, but there’s also some interesting extensions to the bunker 11 quest. Upon entering the bunker, players can reboot the computer systems which initiates a countdown. At the moment the countdown constantly loops from 10-2 and back without ending, and despite a “shiny red button” in another room, there’s no way of stopping the countdown. The only thing players can find is a nuclear warhead in a smoke-filled room after hitting that button, and for now that’s it.
Subliminal Advertising
Plenty of other battle royales as popular asWarzonehave stuck around longer than a few months, but forWarzone’s first big live event to be tied to the nextCall of Dutygamewouldn’t bode well. Sure, it’s an effective way to get fans excited for the next game in the long-running franchise, but it’s hurtful forWarzone’s fanbase. Does it mean the highly popular mode is going to be replaced by anotherWarzonein 2020/2021? Even if that’s not true, there’s clearly a message being sent to fans when the first event forWarzoneis allegedly a tie-in for the next mainlineCall of Dutygame.
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Potentially Damaging for Warzone’s Playerbase
That being said, none of this has been confirmed, especially when thisWarzoneevent hasn’t even been completed yet. Infinity Ward continuously updatesWarzone, so it’s clear there’s dedicated support for the battle royale for now. Even if this reportedBlack Opstie-in is just a teaser to the next game, there’s a possibilitysupport forModern Warfareand especiallyWarzonemay taper off faster than any other massively popular battle royale to date. Especially with rumors of anotherCall of Dutybattle royale coming in 2020/2021, it’d be a shame ifWarzonestarts directly competing with the same franchise that sparked its massive popularity.
Assuming the nextCall of Dutygame is aBlack Opsentry based in the Cold War,Warzonewill still remain popular if the games are conceptually different. Even if the nextCall of Dutydoes have a battle royale, differing time periods means a completely different loot pool and likely a completely different map.Warzonehas more of a chance to maintain its own identityso long as the two games aren’t too similar to each other. But if a new battle royale is in development for 2020’sCall of Duty, the franchise runs the risk of compromising itself and killing any momentumWarzonehas.
We’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for 2020’sCall of Duty, and if there’s a battle royale coming with it.Warzonecurrently has a huge player base and the support behind it is actively working to make that experience better. It’d be a shame for anotherCall of Dutygame to eclipse that momentum just when things were taking off.
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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