2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is one of the most popular multiplayer FPS games out today, but unlike other high-profile multiplayer games with active support and lively communities, it has to contend with strong competition from other titles in the same franchise. Positioning Modern Warfare alongside Warzone was already a strange, if successful, move from Activision, but the addition of Black Ops: Cold War to the mix and the confirmation of CoD 2021 makes Modern Warfare‘s place in the market even more unusual.
At a time when most multiplayer games are built as live services and updated for years, Modern Warfare is receiving active support from its publisher while simultaneously being replaced. Overwatch was released in 2016, and only recently has talk of a followup surfaced, while other competitors like Rainbow 6: Siege and CS:GO came out even earlier and fans haven’t even heard rumors of sequels. This wouldn’t be so odd if Activision was simply sticking to its guns with yearly releases, but the publisher is also keeping Modern Warfare updated like other live-service games, putting it in a sort of limbo.
Activision has adopted a new model for the Call of Duty franchise that seems to be a compromise between three strategies: keeping up the yearly releases that have long made CoD a juggernaut in the FPS market, adopting new live service models that have worked well for CoD‘s competitors, and getting in on the battle royale genre with Warzone. The integration of Warzone and Modern Warfare worked extremely well, but the addition of Cold War has given rise to various doubts about the new model as CoD 2021 approaches.
For live service games, content drops are a way to keep players invested in the same game over several years. For more traditional franchises, regular sequels have a similar effect. However, by combining the two models and adding Warzone as a go-between for multiple CoD games, Activision is doing something that no publisher or developer has attempted before. Typically the options are to keep a game alive or replace it, but Activision has opted to do both, putting the fanbase of Modern Warfare in an odd double bind.
In practice, the new combined CoD model is an inundation of content, which is generally seen as a good thing but also has the potential to be overwhelming in the long-term. Putting out new games while still keeping old ones active runs the risk of splitting up the fanbase, while simultaneously frustrating players who just want to see their favorite title get more support. This is already happening for many Modern Warfare fans, who feel that it is superior to Cold War but is being left behind. Modern Warfare is still a very good game, and has potential that some feel is going untapped in the interest of promoting its successors.
Activision may be trying to keep the classic yearly-release model alive, but the FPS landscape has changed. Many who once bemoaned the rise of games as a service have come to recognize that when it’s done right, it can keep vibrant communities alive and benefit players in the process. As a reboot of the series, 2019’s Modern Warfare was a perfect chance to try out a more modern approach, and the game’s core fundamentals still have the potential for growth. Oddly, though, Activision’s approach has shown players the game’s potential while also denying them the long-term payoff.
Modern Warfare was different from its predecessors, but it brought the franchise back to basics and was hailed as one of the best CoD games ever, especially as it got more maps and gamemodes. The movement and gunplay of Modern Warfare are rock solid, especially important since they also serve as the underpinnings of Warzone. As more maps, weapons, events, cosmetics, and modes have come along, it has become clear that Modern Warfare could easily have the longevity of games like Siege, Overwatch, or CS:GO in its own right. With the resources at Activision’s disposal, it could also have more robust developer support than any of them, if the publisher were to make it a priority.
Now, though, the fate of Modern Warfare and its fanbase is something of an an unknown. Will the game be left to slowly die as new titles receive the lion’s share of developer support, or will it continue to live on in the background for those who still prefer it to more recent additions? No one knows how long it will take for Modern Warfare to receive its own sequel, and many fans will likely continue to prefer its gameplay to Black Ops‘ more arcade-y style and CoD 2021‘s rumored World War 2 setting.
The primary reason that Modern Warfare is in this odd position is that it continues to be a strong game in and of itself. The best way to combine the live-service model with the regular-sequel model is to produce a sequel only once the current title has run its course and provided all it can offer. Simply put, Modern Warfare isn’t done yet. It is still popular and ongoing, while its publisher seems to be actively supporting games that could largely replace it. Warzone‘s success means keeping it alive is an obvious choice, but focus has shifted to Cold War and even CoD 2021 while Modern Warfare has yet to fully run its course.
Because Modern Warfare is still good, fans still enjoy it, and many continue to look forward to receiving and buying more content, it doesn’t make sense to kill the game off yet. At the same time, continuing with yearly CoD releases means leaving it to languish in some regard. Right now, the game is in an odd state of limbo, not fully finished but being slowly left behind. Hopefully Activision can find a balance that lets players enjoy Modern Warfare for as long as possible, and avoid losing out on the potential of such a good game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply