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Will Definitely Build Upon, and Here's How

Activision took a huge risk this year with its Call of Duty franchise, foregoing the usual single player campaign in favor of a lengthier Zombies experience, as well as the addition of a Battle Royale mode, Blackout, to capitalize on the success of other games such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. But it's a move that's apparently paid off, as the game has scored a very good opening day record or two, and is quite popular with the community.

So now we come to a rather interesting question -- will Blackout end up being an experiment that's only going to be reintroduced with each Treyarch entry, or will it become a staple in the Call of Duty brand the same way that Zombies has over the past few years?

Well, while Blackout is still in its early days yet (it hasn't even been out for 72 hours, to be fair), there's a lot of potential here. And it's funny how that can carry out over the long-term.

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• INFINITY WARD COULD BRING SOMETHING NEW TO BLACKOUT

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We've already seen Treyarch's take on the Blackout mode, with its singular map and its support of at least 80+ players in battle at once. (That's sure to expand to 100 as time goes on, if it hasn't already.) But what about the other developers of the Call of Duty franchise?

First up is Infinity Ward, whose latest CoD will make its debut by this time next year. The company will likely bring back single player, as there are rumors indicating that the next game will be in the Modern Warfare series; but we'll also see the return of multiplayer and Zombies to some extent, like Infinite Warfare offered.


But there could also be a variation of Blackout suited to Infinity Ward's standards. That's not to say Treyarch's model doesn't work -- it obviously does -- but the developer could introduce a few subtleties to make it work on the Modern Warfare level, like customized weapons, vehicles and more. And it could change up the rules a little bit and possibly even introduce events or challenges that pop up, pushing your team that much closer to victory.

That's an estimated guess, but the cool thing about developers is what they bring to the picture -- and that leaves us wondering what Sledgehammer might do.

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• SLEDGEHAMMER MAY HAVE SOME SCARY IDEAS

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Last year, the developers behind Advanced Warfare proved that they could do their own thing with the World War II theme. And as 2020 rolls around -- possibly right into the middle of the launch of the next PlayStation and Xbox -- the team could have immense pressure when it comes to delivering a tour-de-force Call of Duty game that goes above and beyond what previous games did.


But, that said, the team left its mark across the board with Call of Duty: WWII, between an intense single player experience, great multiplayer and a horrifying round of Zombies. It could easily introduce all that into its 2020 Duty, along with its own take on Blackout, with possible horror elements (maybe players can come back as Zombies in their own right and wreak havoc on the survivors?) and its own specialty map. Sledgehammer obviously knows what it's doing when it comes to game design, and seeing what it could offer the mode should really be something. If it's included, of course. (Considering its popularity, we don't see why it wouldn't be.)

It's still wayyyyy too soon to tell -- Sledgehammer's next game won't arrive for a couple of years -- but it'll be interesting to see them make Blackout mode their own, just as they did with Zombies.

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• THE GENRE ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE

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While some may feel that Battle Royale games have run their course, the fact of the matter is...they haven't. Fortnite's Battle Royale is just over a year old; and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, despite losing some traction, still has a very strong audience, particularly on mobile. So we have a hard time believing that Blackout will be a flash-in-the-pan thing that'll be dead in a few weeks.

And it's that kind of longevity that will make it a staple to the Call of Duty franchise. The most popular staple? Probably not, since traditional multiplayer is likely to be the focus with casual fans and esports fanatics alike. But it will still continue to stand out based on sheer competition. And if you don't believe us, consider that Twitch and other live-streaming services are going through the roof with Blackout viewing sessions. And they aren't going down in the least, despite people still enjoying Fortnite on a regular basis.

So, yes, expect Blackout to stick around, for at least a couple of years. It will enable devs to introduce something new to the fold, just as they did with Zombies; and it'll bring players back with special weapons and other things introduced to the formula.

Will it be as successful as Fortnite? That's...hard to say, as the game has only been out for a few days and it's hard to tell how the long-term will be. But Blackout is definitely not going away anytime soon, and you can expect Treyarch to keep building on the experience, and other developers to continue to figure out the best way to make it work with their themed games.

Want to see Blackout for yourself? Call of Duty: BLack Ops 4 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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