Now hear me out!!! I love Call of Duty and I’m an avid player. I think Modern Warfare is one of my favorite titles in the entire franchise. But listening to an earnings call last night from Activision, and reading an article from one of my favorite Call of Duty news outlets charlieINTEL, I realized something.
There was a mixup in the studio rotation last year. Developer Sledgehammer was slated to work on Call of Duty 2020. Due to reported tensions, the developer Raven, who had done support work for previous Call of Duty’s would be taking over. And if rumors are true and this years release ends up being Black Ops 5, do I want to really keep buying the next Call of Duty…forever? I mean they put all this time and effort into last year’s game and called it ‘Modern Warfare’. Really? They couldn’t come up with anything else? The games themselves lack originality. Am I going to keep buying the next one simply because its “the next Call of Duty”, or would I prefer to see something new from these insanely talented studios. Of course, the latter.
Who is making the new Call of Duty?
In the call there was no mention of which studio was producing the next Call of Duty. That is the first time that they haven’t mentioned which studio is producing this next title. And that’s kind of an interesting fact, given that each of the three studios (Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer) have such different representations of Call of Duty. During said call, many who are listening are investors and they may think one studio is more qualified than another. So why no mention of Treyarch and Raven, the usual Black Ops devs? As of now, we can’t even say definitively what this next title could be. Black Ops 5 does make sense chronologically with Treyarch, but with the studio mixup last year, and no mention of it during this call, the details of this new Call of Duty are unknown for now.
I will say this, Modern Warfare is great, don’t get me wrong. But is it new? Is it something wild and mysterious like Black Ops 1 was? Or is Modern Warfare just all of the original concepts of Call of Duty—perfected? Like I said, I think this current Call of Duty is great, but it didn’t captivate me. It didn’t suck me in like it did parachuting into enemy territory in Call of Duty 2. Since the introduction of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the Call of Duty franchise has mostly stuck to the model of multiplayer driven games with customizable classes, and a mediocre, linear campaign. For the exception of Black Ops 1, every other title has been under this model.
Why we should skip this year.
My point is that Modern Warfare is the best representation of this gameplay model, but we should signal to the company and the studio’s that we want to see something new. We love the simplicity of the “COD model” but there is also a large number of people who want to try other things in the same realm of Call of Duty but with different gameplay mechanics. What if we actually pulled this off? Imagine the types of games we could potentially see. Imagine Modern Warfare, but as an MMO. Or an espionage game similar to Splinter Cell but in the Black Ops universe. Maybe even something entirely unseen before in the genre. Imagine Escape from Tarkov-style game in a COD universe.
I’m not saying to not support the publisher, Activision, or the studio. Love them or hate them, they produce some of the most loved and most played games on the planet. Wherever your stance, consider skipping the new Call of Duty this year. You want to support the developers still? Buy a different Activision game. Go buy $60 worth of skins on Black Ops 4.
Just think about it.
You don’t really have any other reason to skip the new Call of Duty, other than you just have to see if they added anything amazing. While most of us know, its basically the same game with new guns, new maps, and slightly better graphics. And most likely, this unpopular opinion of mine will fade away like a fart in the wind. But maybe not. Maybe we could make a difference.
But as long as we keep buying their refitted games, we will continue to get games under the same model. And studios, that could be used to develop totally new mind-blowing IP’s, could just become stale mills that don’t ever produce anything innovative.
Force them to want to blow our minds. We want them to be inspired. Let’s let the developers dive into some of their inspirations, while still being able to pay homage to all of the famous concepts we all remember the franchise for. Let’s ask for something new.
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