Call of Duty certainly earned its place in the realm of modern AAA gaming. The franchise, with its signature take on the first-person shooter genre, has garnered widespread success. Every year, the annualized franchise releases a new title and millions of copies sell out quickly. The game enjoys an active player base until the next year, where a significant portion of loyal fans moves to the next one. The only lasting and more permanent entry into the mainline (so, excluding CoD Mobile) is Warzone.
Warzone is what happened when a fluid, highly refined shooter embraced the PUBG formula. For those unfamiliar, the Battle Royal formula is one that other games like Fortnite and Apex Legends also employ. Dozens of players scramble and compete to be the last one standing on an ever-shrinking map. Like the rest, Warzone tweaks the formula to its own style but the core gameplay remains the same. And last year’s hit Modern Warfare reboot received extensive integration with Warzone.
This year, Warzone crosses over with the upcoming Black Ops entry
The last crossover is still active and features iconic characters and weapons from Modern Warfare. This year, Warzone receives a new refresh with a new crossover. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the latest installment in the Black Ops franchise, brings exclusive content to Warzone.
Returning fan-favorite characters like Mason and Woods will come to the battle royale. In addition, a Cold War-themed map is confirmed to come to Warzone. However, that won’t be until 2021.
Activation explicitly stated their plans to support the game, because of how profitable it is
Recently, an Earnings Call at Activision reported a great fiscal year. Even despite the COVID-19 pandemic (which may have thrown the 2 games out of sync), the active communities have grown. That may owe itself to the increased time at home in self-quarantine.
The company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Daniel Alegre even echoed this ethos. He recently stated that the game’s accessibility and free-to-play model reinforced Call of Duty’s established presence. In fact, Alegre even acknowledged the company’s drive to keep the franchise the top-selling series worldwide again.
Warzone certainly offers a lot of incentives for new players to sign up. The game is fully cross-play enabled, meaning Xbox and PS4 players may finally bury the hatchet and team up. The game offers free content with only optional microtransactions. And, to sweeten the deal, the game supports raytracing on PC and next-gen consoles.
Black Ops already serves as an exciting installment in the series
Activision must currently love rolling in the bank. They have always enjoyed massive successes, with the original Black Ops game in 2010 becoming the 6th best-selling Xbox 360 game of all time. Now, with the new Cold War, they may have yet another money train on their hands.
Even if Cold War doesn’t live up to the hype, and underperforms, Warzone still remains a good cash cow. The game, available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, Stadia, Luna and next-gen systems, remains one of the most popular Battle Royale games. And that, surprisingly, is despite the massive storage file size.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will come to all supported platforms on November 13, 2020. The game, with so many graphical features supported, is sure to be a hit. Stick around for all the latest on the game!