Activision Reveal New Details About CoD: Black Ops 4 Development – Esports, Mode Innovations, and More!
Call of Duty publisher company Activision have revealed new details about Black Ops 4, the next title of the storied first person shooter franchise.
In Activision Blizzard’s quarterly Financial Call, the company discussed their vision for the game, including certain aspects of its development and esports scene.
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Activision and developer Treyarch first announced CoD: Black Ops 4 on March 8th, confirming long standing rumors that the fourth game of the popular Black Ops series would be the next title in the franchise.
The vast player-base has since waited in anticipation of the Community Reveal event that is set to take place on May 17th, with the game due to be released on October 12th.
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The October release will be relatively early compared to previous titles, which have usually been released in November.
Activision explained that this decision was based on the popularity of the Black Ops subfranchise, which has had over 200 million players and 15 billion hours played.
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When asked about the game’s development, Activision confirmed that Treyarch were hard at work on introducing innovations into the longstanding Multiplayer and Zombies modes. This could very well mean that these popular modes will include never-before-seen features.
“We are very quick to capture innovation from new ideas.”
Treyarch are widely considered to be the best of the three CoD developers, and Activision has shown great confidence in Treyarch’s “deep understanding of the community” and their ability to “execute their vision” in making Black Ops 4 a game that is built on what players love to play.
“You are going to see a number of great developments on the core game itself beyond innovations.”
- Read More: Activision Blizzard Report Increased Revenue, But Confirm Fortnite Battle Royale Has Impacted
However, there was no mention or talk of any single-player or campaign modes, which lines up with reports that the next title will be the first to not include a campaign.
Treyarch previous developed CoD game was Black Ops 3, which many consider to be the best among recent titles in the series.
One thing that was mentioned was the popularity of the Battle Royale genre, and especially Fortnite. Activision acknowledged that BR games are getting increasingly popular and bringing in new people to the online gaming world.
There have been long standing rumors that Black Ops 4 will feature a Battle Royale mode, which would be a first for a CoD game.
Activision also made mention of the increased in-game sales in CoD: WWII, which is the current title.
It would appear that the success of WWII’s increased in-game content and ‘seasonal events’ will inspire similar promotions and content to be added to Black Ops 4.
Seasonal events and promotions, like WWII’s Operation Shamrock and Awe, could be an example of what is to come in Black Ops 4.
Another important part of the Financial Call was the discussion of the esports scene, which is of course a huge aspect of Call of Duty.
The Call of Duty World League completed Stage One in mid-April and continues to have strong viewership, with cumulative hours watched doubling year-over-year”
Activision also said that they have learned a lot from the new Overwatch League about esports league development and some aspects of that could be applied to CoD esports in ‘the near future.’
One huge difference between the two esports scenes is that the OW League has franchised teams that compete against each other while CoD esports uses the standard promotion/relegation format.
If such a format change were to come to Call of Duty, it could massively change the landscape of its esports scene.
