Call of Duty is jumping on the battle royale bandwagon with Black Ops 4, which will have the Blackout battle royale mode when it launches late this year. However, this isn’t just a case of the series following trends- as far as the folks making the game are concerned, they want to do battle royale better than anyone else is, which includes genre leaders Fortnite and PUBG.
“We wouldn’t do [a battle royale mode] if we didn’t think we could do it best and better than everybody else,” said Black Ops 4 game designer Matt Scronce in an interview with Australian site Finder. “We’ve got a huge library of content, ten years of history, we’ve got the best gunplay out there, we’ve got the best movement, so we’re not too worried about it. Honestly, we’re just worried about making this damn thing as fun as possible.
“And look, we’re in a world where there’s plenty of room for multiple titles. People would sometimes ask ‘How are Battlefield and CoD going to exist in the same industry?’ We do. What we’re doing is going to be different. Some players will gravitate to us and people may gravitate towards other games. We’re making something that, when we play it, we have a whole lotta fun and I think we can grow out from that.”
I suppose the thing here is, I can see Call of Duty battle royale co-existing with PUBG ad Fortnite, absolutely- but will it be obsoleted when next year’s Call of Duty comes out? Because that’s how you shed a base, and that kind of thing will mean it will never become bigger than PUBG and Fortnite. Activision has to support this mode on an ongoing basis for the long run.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches this October. It will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.