“Call Of Duty: Warfare” is the latest entry in the famous Call Of Duty franchise to take the world by storm. In its first month, the free-to-play game was downloaded more than 50 million times, which is absolutely phenomenal for a video game! To put it in context, it’s the same number that Electronic Arts and Respawn saw with the debut of Apex Legends last year, which was another popular FPS.
In this case, social distancing and self-isolation widely contributed to Warzone’s success. While it began as a game that mainly Call Of Duty die-hards knew about, it soon started to gain much more traction as a Fortnite-like Battle Royale that has the potential to connect people as they play online and be an extremely enjoyable game at the same time. Like Fortnite, Warzone has been able to popularize itself and penetrate not only the gaming and E-Sports community but also the mainstream media. For instance, Saturday Night Live even aired a segment on Warzone, which was honestly quite comedic. In the episode, a Twitch streamer plays Warzone and gets killed immediately every time he spawns. That can happen in the game, as a lot of players are quite skilled. One way the game has essentially become a household name is by coming to the attention of a wider group: parents or other household members who discover their gamer is completely obsessed! This is how the game has managed to gain acknowledgement from a show like SNL.
Warzone’s game design also acts to its advantage. It’s unbelievably engaging, much more so than a game like “Call Of Duty: Blackout”. Blackout debuted with “Call Of Duty: Black Ops IIII” and also had a Battle Royale mode, but didn’t have the same kind of hooks that managed to keep people playing. The inclusion of the Gulag is also quite entertaining. If you get killed for the first time, you have a chance to come back. You have to go to a prison (the Gulag) and have another one-on-one fight with another player. If your squadmate is also in the Gulag with you, he or she can watch from above and tell you verbally which way to go to head off the enemy. If you win in the Gulag, you get to parachute back into the game. If you lose, you can still watch your teammates play. They can collect cash and buy you back into the game at a buy station.
The net outcome is that Warzone is both engaging and team-oriented. It gives you a reason to stay and root for your team, even after you die. You can spectate them while you’re waiting to be repurchased, and you can give them advice. It’s a little design change that makes players more social. While you have to be a hardcore player to get good at the gameplay, the social side of it is more inviting for the folks who want to just have a good time.
Recently, the developers of Warzone released a statement regarding the future of the game and it’s Battle Royale mode. Infinity Ward said clearly that due to the explosive success of Warzone, they would continue to support it with updates. They will also adapt the game and release it on the next-generation consoles, the Xbox One X and the PS5. Regarding how Warzone would fit in with future Call Of Duty titles, Infinity Ward stated: “Call of Duty has been on a very regular cadence for many many years, and Warzone has made us rethink exactly how best to release new content and how to integrate it. Call of Duty is a genre in itself, there are different branches in the Call of Duty tree, but they’re all connected in some ways. Warzone will be the through-line that connects all of the different various sub-franchisees of Call of Duty.” It’s needless to say that the entire gaming community is excited to see how the various other Call of Duty games get incorporated into Warzone as the years go on.
