Treyarch and Activision’s decision to drop the single player campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and instead opt for Blackout, its battle royale mode, was a controversial one, and questions about whether that will become a trend for the series have persisted ever since. Activision have already confirmed that Call of Duty 2019, currently in development at Infinity Ward, will indeed have single player campaign, but according to a recent report at Gaming INTEL, it might also be choosing to not have a battle royale mode of its own.
As per the report, Blackout – or any other battle royale mode – won’t be making a return in Call of Duty 2019, which will instead have a single player mode, a regular competitive online component, as well as a co-op mode. What’s interesting is that as per the report, the game’s multiplayer component will also be dropping the Specialists mechanic in an attempt to bring the experience back to the series’ roots.
In what seems like even more relevant news in light of this, Activision recently announced that free-to-play Android and iOS title Call of Duty: Mobile would be coming to the West soon, for which Blackout has been teased as well. Considering how successful the genre has been on mobile devices, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that Activision might deem it to be a better bit on such devices rather than consoles, especially given its free-to-play nature.
Of course, this is an unverified rumour right now, and shouldn’t be taken as anything but, but if it does turn out to be true, it’d be an interesting decision on part of Activision. Stay tuned for more updates.