The Call of Duty franchise as we know and witnessed the line of first-person war titles has gone though quite a drastic amount of changes this past console generation. Jumping from borderline post-apocalyptic to the near future of 2060, players have voiced different opinions on the steps that Activision and the studios behind each yearly installment have taken to better the series. Many became very vocal to stress that the essential Golden Age for Call of Duty ended already once the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 shipped back in 2013.
Regardless, more titles arrived each year as the torch was passed between the teams that share the property still on this soul searching journey that would stick as former installments did on older gen hardware. Meanwhile, fans of the latter called for the traditional formula of boots on the ground to make a return and to abandon the technology of coming generations, this wasn’t answered until the release of Call of Duty: World War 2 in 2017.
The series showed a swelling in sales compared to 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as fans began to return to the AAA franchise that year. Followed with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the tailing installment instead went ahead in time, but focused on the core aspect of online-only and abandoned the campaign in favor for multiplayer-focused offering battle royale this time. Selling well surprisingly, it was until this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that the series took the throne upon both the market and its user base.
Reiterating the 2009 titular title by Infinity Ward, the series returns with close-quarters combat, a bevy of customization, and free content spread among all platforms. But leading ahead, it is uncertain that the same can be said with what Treyarch has brewing for 2020’s Call of Duty title. According to a responding tweet by the studio’s Design director David Vonderhaar, this year’s game will be ditching the jetpacks for fundamental gameplay elements.
Another fan who responded to him denouncing jetpacks/thrusterpacks being implemented into the coming Call of Duty game, Vonderhaar goes to the extent to clarify he is still haunted from the fan reaction of their presence in prior games, stating to have “PTSD” in a separate tweet. Essentially, 2020’s game was initially planned to be boots on the ground before the developers debacle that occurred this past spring.
Reported by Kotaku, Sledgehamer Games who is responsible for orchestrating both Advanced Warfare and World War 2 would be turning in their badge to work alongside Raven Software as an assisting team for coming projects developed by Infinity Ward and Treyarch. This event resulted from internal conflicts for development for the originally-planned project following their 2017 title as both Sledgehammer and Raven Software conflicted on aspects for the 2020-aimed title.
So I guess this aligns with what was planned before Treyarch took the position to release their next title a year early if you want to word it that way. Seeing that Modern Warfare is the most successful installment this generation, it is smart that Treyarch is taking notes from the game to live up with this year’s installment.
Make sure you read up on our review for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare by heading below.
