The echo chamber on the internet would have you believe that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was a horrible game. After many hundreds of hours playing, I don't agree with that, at least not entirely. Like most games, it has its good points and its bad points.
But as we're approaching yet another yearly cycle with Modern Warfare 4 arriving next month, once again it's time for opinions to be voiced around how the franchise should become "good" again.
For many, it's a return to the glory days of multiplayer. There are those who believe that Warzone should be completely split off as its own thing, too, and not tied to the yearly release. And plenty more besides.
But on the Warzone front, I agree, and a video I watched by dkdynamite on YouTube takes this idea and applies it to Zombies. There are so many different experiences under Call of Duty these days, but I'm not so sure this approach of making one game to suit everyone is working.
I think it's time that parties from Microsoft/Xbox and Activision get their respective heads together and think long and hard about what the road ahead looks like. I think that road should be a break up of Call of Duty.
Break up Call of Duty? What do you mean?
The traditional core of Call of Duty is the campaign and the multiplayer. As the years have passed, though, Zombies has grown to be a huge part of the game's audience, and of course, there's Warzone. The free-to-play battle royale mode that I personally think has infected too much of the main game.
Using Black Ops 7 as an example, there has been a ridiculous amount of content to play. Beyond the core campaign and multiplayer, there's an extensive Zombies mode, there's Endgame, and there have been limited-time modes and special events across all three, and Warzone is there on the side with its own batch of content.
There are players who will dive into each mode, but it's impossible to do so fully in a year. For many of us, the camo grind and calling card challenges draw us in long enough to complete them, and then we'll go back to our preferred mode.
Zombies players are the best example right now, because after five consecutive Call of Duty releases with Zombies (of some form), Modern Warfare 4 is arriving without. So what's attracting those players to Modern Warfare 4 for the next year? Aside from the campaign, there's a grand total of zero content (at least confirmed for now) of a PvE nature in Modern Warfare 4. DMZ has PvP, with no sign so far of a dedicated PvE mode.
This is why I think it's time to stop the cycle and start breaking apart the various aspects of Call of Duty. Does that mean a standalone Zombies game that runs alongside but is separated from a yearly release or multiple yearly releases? Does that mean Warzone is just Warzone and does its own thing? DMZ getting more than a year of live support and continuing into 2028 or beyond?
Yes to all. I sure wish Black Ops 7 Endgame was getting a second year.
Trying to please everyone pleases no one
Sure, it would require a significant shift and some reorganization, but Call of Duty is owned by Microsoft, one of the biggest companies on the planet.
But the current yearly cycle isn't pleasing anyone. Warzone players are peeved that every year their game gets changed based on whatever that year's main release is. Zombies players now have nothing new until at least next year, or 2028, when Treyarch returns. Multiplayer fans are constantly aggravated by something.
There are so many plates spinning.
There's no way that the yearly release cycle will end, no matter how many of us think it should. The money has to keep rolling in. But I argue that happy players are players who spend money on a game, whatever form that takes.
Call of Duty is big enough that it could be a collection of games, not just one. Give us a new multiplayer every year and a new campaign. But how about a standalone PvE game based on Zombies that lives for multiple years alongside it?
The problem is I feel, and I'm sure I'm not alone, that the cycle and every game is built with the top priority being monetization, not getting people to play and enjoy playing. We saw it with the price increase to Game Pass post-Black Ops 6 and when that didn't work out, the subsequent removal of Call of Duty from being a day-one Game Pass release.
The revenue took a dive because people were jumping in on Game Pass, not paying $80 whether they played it for a week or a year, on top of any additional microtransactions. So it's off Game Pass.
Would it not be better to have more dedicated experiences for players to enjoy for longer? Give teams a focus, time to breathe, and time to work their magic and focus on making and supporting games that players want to play, rather than keep tolerating.
Older Call of Duty games prove this could work
People will stick around. They will keep playing older Call of Duty games. I recently tried Modern Warfare 3 Zombies for the first time in my life, and it's still stacked with players.
Black Ops Cold War is now on Game Pass, which has brought a lot of us back in, but there are plenty who never stopped.
Lest we forget the recent Black Ops and Black Ops 2 ports on PS5. How popular they have been despite their issues.
The point is that a good experience lasts, and players will stick around playing it. So instead of getting to a point where everyone's tired of the current game and goes back to the older ones, how about we just build longer-lasting experiences to begin with? I think part of why the older games still hold up is because we don't really appreciate them until they're in the rearview mirror and we have more time to take it all in.
Don't expect Warzone players to play multiplayer or Zombies. Don't expect either of those two types of players to want to play Warzone. Hell, if casual mode didn't exist, I wouldn't have done the mastery camo. Even then it was 65 hours of misery because I just don't like Warzone. But give each type of player their own bespoke experience.
Give each mode the space, and importantly, the time, to breathe. From the creation to post-launch support.
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