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Another 'Call Of Duty' Will Be Released This Year
When video game consoles come to the end of their lifespan, game developers get nervous.
15:42 11 May 2020
They have a decision to make. Do they release the games they're working on right now, and risk them becoming obsolete when players move from the current generation of consoles to the next one? Or do they hang back, wait for the new consoles to hit the shelves, and then polish their current projects to make them look their best when played on new technology? It's a difficult question, and one there isn't really a right answer to.
We’re in the middle of one of those periods right now. Everybody knows that the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X will be launched somewhere close to the end of 2020. Because of that, we know that the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One will soon be heading towards retirement. There will be a significant slump in the development of games for the current-gen consoles when the new ones become available, and then a slow abandonment of them over the course of the next twelve months as developers stop supporting them one by one. That isn’t great news for Activision, as they have yet another brand-new ‘Call of Duty’ game to sell to us. We have good news if you’re one of the millions of people eagerly waiting for it, though - they’re still going to release it this year.
It's impossible to overstate the success of 'Call of Duty' as a brand. It was one of many war simulation games when the first version was released all those years ago, but it's evolved to become the undisputed master of the genre. Non-gamers despair when their partners buy the latest version of the game - it means that they're not going to get able to get or hold their attention for weeks. Such is the staggering success of the game that it's crossed over to online slots websites. Not only will you find an officially-endorsed UK Online Slots based on 'Call of Duty 4,' but you'll also find several spin-off games such as 'Call of Fruity.' If a video game is so well-known and attractive to players that it can attract thousands of dollars at online slots websites, then it's perfectly reasonable to refer to it as 'legendary.' We can call the 'Call of Duty' series legendary without hesitation.
The news that we'll definitely get a 2020 release for the next 'Call of Duty' game came on a periodic conference call between Activision and its investors, but aside from confirming the existence of the game, they didn't give us any solid information to work with. It doesn't even have an official name yet - right now, it's referred to internally as 'Call of Duty 2020.' The company also didn't specifically confirm whether it will be released purely for current-gen consoles, or held back for the new machines. If we had to bet, we'd say that versions will be released for both platforms to maximize Activision's potential returns. This is the strategy that's likely to be adopted by most companies for almost every large-scale release during the next year while they wait for players to upgrade their hardware.
In the absence of any official news, though, there’s been no shortage of speculation, some of which comes from people who claim to be ‘in the know’ about the development of the game. The hottest rumor we’ve seen says that it’s going to be a spin-off of the ‘Black Ops’ series, which has been one of the most popular and widely-played of all the different ‘Call of Duty’ variants that exist. Rather than being a fifth ‘Black Ops’ game, though, it’s suggested that it will be a reboot of the series in the same way that ‘Modern Warfare’ rebooted that series. Nobody could blame Activision for trying to repeat the same trick if that’s the decision that they’ve made - when it comes to sales figures and revenue, the most recent ‘Modern Warfare’ is the biggest earner in the history of the franchise. It's thought that more than sixty million people play the 'free' version of the game online, and have contributed to the incredible $956m in microtransaction revenue that the company made during the first quarter of 2020.
If the rumors of a further 'Black Ops' game are proven to be true, then players can look forward to becoming re-acquainted with the covert world of the Cold War, albeit this time with better-than-ever-before graphics and, presumably, a more detailed story mode. Activision has learned from previous mistakes that players don't like it when story modes are dropped completely in favor of expanding online gameplay, and so we expect a movie-worthy story to accompany the new game. That might make up for the abandonment of the 'Call of Duty' movie project, with mysteriously went from being ready to go in front of the cameras to being canceled completely in the space of six months at the end of 2019. While almost every aspect of the Cold War has been done before as far as 'Call of Duty' is concerned, players are unlikely to complain about getting more of the same thing so long as it's presented with a unique twist and some new ideas.
One thing that isn't likely to come along with the new game is the 'Battle Royale' mode that 'Modern Warfare' has seen such success with. This free-to-play online mode was intended to attract 'Fortnite' players back to the 'Call of Duty' franchise, and with sixty million players, it would be hard to deny that it's done so admirably. Activision doesn't want to confuse players by running two competing 'Battle Royale' modes at the same time, and so it's understood that the feature will remain exclusive to the latest version of 'Modern Warfare' as the company believes it can get at least another year out of it yet. They haven't ruled out the possibility of attaching the mode to future games so that players using different versions of the game can meet in the same combat arena when they go online - but that's a discussion for the future as opposed to the present.
Whatever the game turns out to be, and whatever features it does or doesn't have, it's bound to be a huge sales success for Activision. For the 'Call of Duty' obsessives among you, you can officially start counting down the days until this mysterious 2020 installment arrives.