Despite Activision, Treyarch, and Raven Software putting out both an alpha and beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, lots of questions are still on the table about how the game will operate and intermingle with the battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone. It has been confirmed that Black Ops Cold War uses a different engine than Modern Warfare, building upon the same tech with revamped tools, yet it seems Warzone at its core will not change to match it.
In a ResetEra forum discussing the announcement that Black Ops Cold War and Warzone integration begins in December, a verified Activision Art Lead who goes by ShutterMunster wrote, "There will not be an engine shift for WZ." This seems fair given how much of a hassle it would be to change the core operating systems of a game played by so many people, but it doesn't mean there are no plans to integrate content from the new Call of Duty.
Rather, Activision President Rob Kostich confirmed that players will simply be able to choose whether they would prefer to use Black Ops Cold War or Modern Warfare loadouts while playing Warzone in an interview with Call of Duty news site CharlieIntel. It's a simple solution that makes sense, and ensures Warzone will retain the gameplay loop which has kept it so popular as the next Black Ops tries something different.
While many in the ResetEra forum applaud this decision to keep Warzone's engine intact, even decrying the differences seen in Black Ops Cold War's beta compared to Modern Warfare, others may be more upset at the choice not to shake things up. Warzone has received complaints about overpowered melee attacks, for example.
That being said, damage values for individual attacks can be adjusted through patches, and given how often Warzone is updated with new content it may seem like overkill to swap its engine and throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. Activision has no reason to change what has been working so far, as CEO Bobby Kotick said using Warzone for marketing has been working better for the company than paid media advertising.
Thus, even with the impending release of Sony and Microsoft's next-generation consoles alongside Black Ops Cold War, it seems the popular battle royale is not going anywhere. If anything, Call of Duty: Warzone will likely get more active as time goes on, so fans should keep an eye out to see how it integrates with the series further.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: ResetEra (via MP1st), CharlieIntel
