Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign

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Venom
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PostPolygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Venom » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:04 pm

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 won’t include a traditional single-player story mode, according to sources with knowledge of the project’s status. The shift in creative direction will make Black Ops 4 the first mainline Call of Duty to ship without a standard campaign.

When reached for comment, an Activision spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on rumor and speculation. We look forward to revealing Black Ops 4 on May 17th.”

The sources, who asked for anonymity, said that as Black Ops 4’s release date approached, it became evident that development on the single-player campaign wouldn’t be completed. One source said Treyarch has since focused Black Ops 4’s development on expanding multiplayer and the series’ popular Zombies mode. The source described an emphasis on cooperative modes as a potential stand-in for the typical single-player campaign experience.

ONE SOURCE DESCRIBED AN INTENSE FOCUS ON MULTIPLAYER AND ZOMBIES MODES
Created by developer Infinity Ward in 2003, the Call of Duty franchise initially built acclaim around its single-player campaigns. The studio took advantage of the additional power of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 early in their life cycles, producing cinematic, linear and heavily directed missions that stood above the other first-person shooters of that generation. “No Russian,” the controversial mission from 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 involving a shooting at an airport, is one of the most notorious and iconic single-player moments in games, regularly used in supercuts and news packages commenting on violence in video games.

But as the series grew in popularity with each annual iteration, it became increasingly synonymous with multiplayer. With Activision’s support, Call of Duty has become a major esport, filling massive auditoriums and festivals. In recent years, Activision has allowed PC users to download the single-player and multiplayer modes separately.

BLACK OPS IS NOW CALL OF DUTY’S LONGEST-RUNNING SUBFRANCHISE
The Black Ops series has been spearheaded by Treyarch since the original entry in 2010, though Call of Duty games, including Black Ops, are produced with support from other studios, including Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software and Certain Affinity. The Black Ops series has featured an ongoing and largely praised story, extending from the 1960s to the 2060s, mixing Cold War intrigue with not-so-distant future techno-paranoia. Black Ops 4 will make the series the longest-running subfranchise in the Call of Duty series, surpassing the Modern Warfare trilogy.

The tagline for Black Ops 4 is “forget what you know,” which speaks to the series’ fascination with mind control. Though perhaps it also doubles as a message to fans, encouraging them to reconsider what makes a complete Call of Duty game.

Activision is expected to ship one single-player campaign this year in the form of a remaster of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which Charlie Intel and Eurogamer have reported will be released without the original game’s multiplayer component.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is scheduled for release on Oct. 12, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Activision will reveal more information on Black Ops 4 during a reveal on May 17, and is expected to share additional info this June at E3.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/17/17248 ... -cod-blops

A big share of Call of Duty sells are to 'casuals' who play it and FIFA mainly for the multiplayer. Will they even care or is this the beginning of the franchise being deposed as yearly best seller?

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Dig Dug » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:10 pm

It's a good idea on their part to cut costs from that area and make their product more focused where it matters most. If anything ditching the likes of campaign and story modes could be better for the game overall if they use this opportunity to design single player with the purpose of better teaching players the game rather than giving them a token story mode to play through once.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by 7256930752 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:14 pm

I can't see it happening but as a fan of the multiplayer I wouldn't be opposed to them releasing a single product for multiplayer wth a variety of options for the era that you want to play in.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Gemini73 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:24 pm

I like the big, bold, stupid, yet unashamedly fun single player campaigns of CoD.

Shame if this rumour turns out to be true. :(

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by more heat than light » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:30 pm

Yeah this means I won't be buying any more CoD games. I mean, I didn't anyway, but there's always a chance I might have picked them up in a bargain bin for a fiver.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Monkey Man » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:35 pm

twitter.com/charlieINTEL/status/986329037441306625


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Frank
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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Frank » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:37 pm

Is Battle Royale going to be the new horde morde? :dread: Why even bother doing what's already being done?

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Trelliz » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:37 pm

The shift in creative direction will make Black Ops 4 the first mainline Call of Duty to ship without a standard campaign.


Not strictly true; the ps3/360 version of BLOPS 3 was multiplayer/zombies only.

I liked some of the cod campaigns but I can see why they're doing this; if comparatively few people are playing through an expensive 6-hour asset tour campaign with celebrity voice actors, why bother spending the time and money? At what point do they start naming them like sports games - Call of Duty 2018 etc - if that's all they are to people.

Frank wrote:Is Battle Royale going to be the new horde morde? :dread: Why even bother doing what's already being done?


Because its the new hotness - big mainstream publishers always hop on the latest gravy train, especially if they didn't come up with it, ride it into the ground for as much money as possible and discard it once something else has taken its place. Look at the graveyard of MMOs and MOBAs that tried the same thing over the last 15 years.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Denster » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:58 pm

I rarely play the single player so i'm not too fussed. The bigger story is the rumour that MW2 remastered will not contain multiplayer. Wait and see on both.

COD has many detractors on here but it's multiplayer this time around is superb. Great maps, great events and the addition of war mode has worked brilliantly. If Treyarch have looked at that and thought - right we're focusing on MP only and we're going to be supporting it as well as that. I'd be very happy with that.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by rinks » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:09 pm

So they can release it as DLC later.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by rinks » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:10 pm

Also, this clears the way for them switching to a subscription model.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Saint of Killers » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:12 pm

rinks wrote:So they can release it as DLC later.


:!: :lol:

Last edited by Saint of Killers on Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Photek » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:12 pm

Can’t see how they can do a battle Royale, I mean, unless it’s a new engine or the player count is vastly smaller than 100. Also how will loot be collected? It’ll be interesting to see.

Battlefield certainly has the engine including plane drop but the loot will again be a problem. I don’t think either will get near PUBG either way.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by 7256930752 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:35 am

Monkey Man wrote:

twitter.com/charlieINTEL/status/986329037441306625


Not sure about this, I like CoD for what it is and don't need it to be a battle royale.

I just remember that I picked up BO2 to catch up on the story before BO4 :x

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Lagamorph » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:20 am

Guess I'm not buying Call of Duty anymore then.

Shame, because the Infinite Warfare campaign was probably the best in the entire series.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by OrangeRKN » Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:33 am

"The source described an emphasis on cooperative modes as a potential stand-in for the typical single-player campaign experience."

If split-screen then I'm very okay with this

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by KingK » Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:56 am

I won’t be buying it then, but at least it gives me a chance to finish the last one now.

1 less game to buy :toot:

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Trelliz » Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:06 am

OrangeRakoon wrote:"The source described an emphasis on cooperative modes as a potential stand-in for the typical single-player campaign experience."

If split-screen then I'm very okay with this


But split screen means two people can play with one copy of the game rather than two, so activision would lose a sale each time and the shareholders can't have that.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Photek » Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:44 pm

I never played more than little bits of Call of Duty campaigns from 4 onwards. They are absolutely gick.

Going MP only is fine for the majority, I'm sure they have information on hand to show who finished the main campaigns over the years and made the choice.

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PostRe: Polygon: Call of Duty to ditch single player campaign
by Squinty » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:14 pm

I think this would be alright if they made the multiplayer bigger and better. More maps, more gameplay modes.


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