COD: Black Ops 4 Will Have No Story Campaign - Boy oh Boy it gets Battle Royale Instead

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Quoted from Kotaku (archive link: https://archive.li/39Sz1 )

This fall’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will essentially be multiplayer-only, lacking the kind of single-player campaign that has been a key component of the annual series for over a decade, two sources familiar with the game tell Kotaku, corroborating a report published earlier today at Polygon.

One of those sources also echoed a report from top Call of Duty information-broker Charlie Intel saying that the new game will have a battle royale mode. That’s the kind of last-player-standing mode that’s been taking over gaming for the past year, what with the success of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite: Battle Royale and myriad competitors. So far, no big-budget game studio has added a Battle Royale mode to a big franchise series, but it has seemed like only a matter of time before it hits a Call of Duty or a Battlefield, a Division or a Destiny.

Details are murky, and Call of Duty publisher Activision isn’t talking. “We don’t comment on rumor and speculation,” it responded via email to Kotaku today. Recent Call of Duty games have been bursting with modes, including the increasingly the increasingly elaborate Zombies modes pioneered by Black Ops 4's lead studio Treyarch. Black Ops 3 already offered two-player co-op in that game’s campaign.

According to Polygon, as the multi-year development cycle of Black Ops 4 moved toward the game’s October release date, “it became evident that development on the single-player campaign wouldn’t be completed.”

Activision has shown some recent interest in re-jiggering the content offered for its Call of Duty games. Two years ago, it offered a remaster of the classic Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to PlayStation owners alongside the release of that year’s big CoD, offering it as a standalone purchase many months later. The most recent game in the series, Call of Duty: WWII, saw a drop in the number of multiplayer maps offered at the game’s launch. Given the buzz Call of Duty games get for their multiplayer, it’s been common for gaming pundits to speculate about if or when Activision would drop campaigns from the games.

Activision will officially reveal more details about the new Black Ops during an event on May 17. It’s slated for release on October 12 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

UPDATE - 8:13pm: Added the word “essentially” to the lede in reference to the new game being “multiplayer-only”, as readers correctly pointed out that past zombie modes, while promoted for co-op have supported solo play. That’s actually how I’ve primarily played them, too and we don’t have any indication that a solo option would be dropped from zombies mode in the new game.

 

[A Hot Potato]

Telling me you couldn't throw together a half assed campaign in 3 years?

Not that I care since I have not played a Cod game past Black Ops 1, but this seems downright lazy.

 

[Dr. Kaufman]

The last CoD game I played was Black Ops 2, and by the sounds of how badly things went with Ghosts, I got off at the right time.

Treyarch games, outside of Zombies, were always less entertaining than Infinity Ward games anyway, and I think the fact they're on Black Ops 4 now perfectly illustrates that.

 

[The Fool]

This is an active executive decision. Single-player offline games aren't profitable, people can play them all they want forever, even if you release a new game. Online games are better, because those need central servers, servers you can shut down right after you release a new game.

 

[It's HK-47]

I haven't played a Call of Duty game since the mid-PS2 era, so all I have to ask is: Modern CoD games had a story campaign? So much of the player-base does nothing but putz around on the multiplayer elements that I wasn't even aware that they had a single-player element anymore. I can't say that I blame them too much, considering that the rise of the "Battle Royale" genre a la PUBG and Fortnite proved that you really don't need a single player campaign for your shooter game to succeed, anyways.

I'd say that I'm sure that fans of the single player element in Call of Duty games will be upset by this news but I'm not sure if those people exist.

 

[D.Angus]

Can we not have another Battle Royal mode/game please?

 

[vertexwindi]

This is an active executive decision. Single-player offline games aren't profitable, people can play them all they want forever, even if you release a new game.

That's stupid. They just need to differentiate their games better so the new games actually bring something new to the table.

 

[Chaos Theorist]

I haven't played a Call of Duty game since the mid-PS2 era, so all I have to ask is: Modern CoD games had a story campaign? So much of the player-base does nothing but putz around on the multiplayer elements that I wasn't even aware that they had a single-player element anymore. I can't say that I blame them too much, considering that the rise of the "Battle Royale" genre a la PUBG and Fortnite proved that you really don't need a single player campaign for your shooter game to succeed, anyways.

I'd say that I'm sure that fans of the single player element in Call of Duty games will be upset by this news but I'm not sure if those people exist.

COD4, World at War, and the first Black Ops are great games if you are just looking for a theme park FPS experience.

 

[Graffiti canvas]

Why call it Black Ops 4 then? Would make more sense to do away with the pretentiousness of it and just call it "COD - Battle Royal"? I can't wait to read the salt about all the day 1 DLC content you'll have to purchase.

I wonder if this is the start of the AAA studio takeover of the genre that will reduce all uniqueness and innovative content into a homogeneous, lowest common denominator business model, or has that already happened to BR games?

 

[Red Hood]

How hard is it to loop in some mocap animated door kickings from the library and some generic military jargon? "Clear the room! Tango down! I have crabs!" Just string that shit together for 6 levels and you got a COD campaign.

 

[Robotron]

This makes about as much sense as SFV not having an arcade mode for it's initial launch.

 

[Syaoran Li]

I'm like the only person I know who plays Call of Duty for the single-player campaign mode instead of dicking around on Multiplayer, and I stopped playing CoD after Modern Warfare 3.

So, in all honesty I don't give a shit if they drop single-player mode. Especially if the game is one of those sci-fi Black Ops titles.

When they announced they were going back to their World War II setting last year, I actually felt as if maybe the franchise would get good again. But I was apparently wrong.

 

[CIA Nigger]

Let's be honest here, who plays Call of Duty's single player at this point? I remember Vince Zampella (Infinity Ward CEO/Co-Founder) said when making Titanfall that it can take 6 months to make a single player mission players will run through in 8 minutes, and then only around 5 percent of people buying the game will actually play through it. People buying Call of Duty don't buy it for the story.

Even some of the newer CoDs with decent single players like BO2, AW, and IW got overlooked because nobody is going to fire those modes up. They might as well focus on what people actually play, which is the MP and Zombies mode.

(Then again knowing Call of Duty's track record, it'll suck since there hasn't been a good CoD since BO2 or AW)

Why call it Black Ops 4 then? Would make more sense to do away with the pretentiousness of it and just call it "COD - Battle Royal"? I can't wait to read the salt about all the day 1 DLC content you'll have to purchase.

I wonder if this is the start of the AAA studio takeover of the genre that will reduce all uniqueness and innovative content into a homogeneous, lowest common denominator business model, or has that already happened to BR games?

They're calling it Black Ops 4 for the same reason they called Black Ops 3 that. They're riding off the success of Black Ops 2 still since everyone loved that game.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Goddamn no more hollywood actors as selling points anymore.

 

[Robotron]

Goddamn no more hollywood actors as selling points anymore.

Remember when Kevin Spacey was in Advanced Warfare before he was outed during the Hollywood Weinstein sex pest scandal?

 

[Graffiti canvas]

They're calling it Black Ops 4 for the same reason they called Black Ops 3 that. They're riding off the success of Black Ops 2 still since everyone loved that game.

I haven't played any COD games since MW. I thought the story mode was pretty good what with the nuke scene and all that.

Ever since, all I've heard about COD games is that they really only cared about the MP aspect so I quit. I don't even know what the Black Ops campaigns where.

 

[CIA Nigger]

Goddamn no more hollywood actors as selling points anymore.

They'll just sell more celeb voiceover DLC.

 

[Quijibo69]

COD was pretty much shitty franchise from day one, made for kids ages 12 to 40.

 

[HomeAloneTwo]

As previously stated, campaigns are a resource and money hog. Hours and hours of voice acting, writing, engineering for something people don't want to do.

With that being said, they are pushing the engine to the absolute limit, and knowing the COD franchise, they are going to overlook mechanics and playability for graphics, meaning their "battle royale" will, at most, support 30 players, if they're lucky.

 

[James Howlett]

COD4 was the first one I ever played and it was magical. I also enjoyed WaW. Then they did a way with private/local server hosting in MW2. Since then I've just pirated the games to play campaign and make fun of idiots that would spend $120 for a complete version of a game that would be obsolete in a few months anyway.