Like every year, there's always the anticipation from fans waiting for the next Call of Duty game. There've been rumors and leaks swirling about 2020's Call of Duty, ranging from another Black Ops title to a Vietnam-centered war story. Typically in the middle of the year is when the next game is unveiled to fans, but for a variety of reasons, 2020 has been a very different year for video games in general. But for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this extended wait has been very beneficial to the life of the most recent Call of Duty game.
Ever since October of last year, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has carried the franchise's typical release momentum much further than any previous entry has had the opportunity to. Modern Warfare and Warzone have seen an immense and continual popularity over the course of the last eight months, prolonged by the lack of news on this year's annual release. Modern Warfare relishes the time it continues to hold the spotlight until the next Call of Duty game is unveiled.
Seasons of Modern Warfare
Bringing continual updates and a wealth of seasonal content to Modern Warfare has granted the game an extended life cycle. As recent as April of 2020, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare continues to top sales charts around the world. Part of that has to due with the consistent seasonal updates and balance changes applied to the game over time. While it garnered some ire initially for being a battle pass system in a full price/non-free-to-play title, consistent cosmetic updates have for the most part been a positive addition for Call of Duty fans. Popular and reimagined characters from classic games, as well as new operators, have added distinct flair for players to use in-game. There's also the weapon skins and trinkets, while on occasion have had their own respective issues, also allow players to customize more.
Customization and player flair aside, Modern Warfare has had several balance changes and additional content added to the game as well. Weapons like the GRAU 5.56 have proven to be incredibly powerful additions to Modern Warfare, even meta-breaking in some cases. But the Call of Duty development team continues to deliver balance updates to the game in response to feedback from fans and professional players alike. Not only that, but new maps and modes are constantly rotated through the core multiplayer playlists, as well as some additional unique side-modes like One in the Chamber.
Warzone's Battle Royale Craze
There's also the standalone Warzone battle royale that came out not too long ago. Ever Since then, Warzone has quite literally exploded in popularity and continues to boast consistently huge player counts and viewers on Twitch, even moving into the game's fourth season of content in June. While Black Ops 4's battle royale Blackout had a solid following from fans, Warzone has seemingly completely eclipsed Call of Duty's previous efforts in battle royale.
Warzone in particular surpassed Blackout because of its distinct features that became unique for the genre. Adding a second chance mechanic in the form of the Gulag added an element of skill-based respawning that was both distinctive and reminiscent of standard Call of Duty multiplayer. Adding Cash and the Buy Stations with the litany of power-ups, air strikes, armor, and abilities players could acquire added to the depth and complexity of Warzone far beyond Blackout ever could. Plus with the familiarity of Call of Duty to all shooter fans, the barrier of entry was low despite having a relatively high skill ceiling, at least for Call of Duty standards.
2020's Call of Duty Could Be a Momentum Killer
Regardless of how well Modern Warfare has performed since its release, Call of Duty's next annual release is on the way. Even though the reveal may be a bit more delayed than previous years, 2020's iteration of Call of Duty is almost certainly on track for release this fall. Especially with the start of a new console generation beginning in 2020, Activision wouldn't want to miss the chance to once again kick off a new generation with another mainline Call of Duty title. While it's great that Call of Duty wants to keep the ball rolling on annual releases, 2020's release would be a serious momentum killer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone.
Warzone and Modern Warfare paired together in the last eight months has easily been one of the most successful times in Call of Duty's history. Just moving on to 2020's Call of Duty wouldn't be fair to the Modern Warfare/Warzone playerbase that's come to love both the standard multiplayer and battle royale. Any gripes with the latest season or whatever's currently unbalanced in the meta doesn't cheapen the fact that fans have grown to love this latest Call of Duty just as much as the Black Ops franchise has soared in popularity in recent years. In the past, now would be around the time that average players would either be easing themselves out of this year's Call of Duty and moving on.
The franchise is definitely at a peak moment, and Modern Warfare and Warzone fans are relishing the time in the spotlight more so than any other annual release has done previously. As long as content updates keep coming for both, it's hard to imagine fans would complain if the next Call of Duty is delayed or releases later than usual. It's also not hard to imagine that many players will begin to abandon Modern Warfare once 2020's release starts taking the spotlight.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone are available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
