Leaks and rumors continue to swirl around Call of Duty 2020, especially since nary a peep was heard about it at the recent Playstation 5 game reveal event. No news about the next main-line Call of Duty game this late into the year is practically unprecedented, but it will almost certainly launch some time this year to capitalize on the momentum of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is arguably the most popular CoD game yet. With various game modes leaked including a battle royale mode, there are many questions about how the two games will relate and whether or not they will step on each other’s toes.
Call of Duty 2020 is rumored to be the next Black Ops, set in the Cold War era. It could be a soft reboot, much like the current Modern Warfare, or take any number of other twists and turns in its presentation. The major concern about CoD 2020 is how it will relate to Modern Warfare, which is insanely popular. While Modern Warfare and Black Ops are made by different developers, the publisher, Activision, will need to be strategic about maintaining Modern Warfare’s playerbase while still using its popularity to boost Call of Duty 2020.
CoD 2020 Development
Another big question mark is the development process for Call of Duty 2020. The game is rumored to have a massive file size and a battle royale mode, and is releasing remarkably close to Modern Warfare. While Modern Warfare and Black Ops titles always feel very different, it would certainly make sense for CoD 2020’s developer Treyarch to use the same engine as Modern Warfare to make building a framework for battle royale and other game modes as easy as possible.
Even if they do use the same engine, the games can still have totally different mechanics and feel entirely separate from each other. For example, countless games have been made in Unreal engine that are practically unrecognizable from each other. There is at least a little evidence for the two sharing resources in the presence of the Galil in Modern Warfare’s season 4. The Galil has typically only been in Black Ops games, so adding it in may be a way to take advantage of in-engine resources being made for the other game.
CoD 2020 is also rumored to have skill based matchmaking, which, again might be a holdover from Modern Warfare’s engine. While two games in the same engine but developed by different teams can feel very different, they would still be subject to many of the same inherent flaws. Large file sizes, issues with PC optimization, and rampant cheating might also end up as inadvertent side effects, plaguing both Modern Warfare and CoD 2020. The benefit would be ease of development, but the downsides might outweigh the positives.
All that being said, the lack of an announcement this late into the year lends credence to rumors that CoD 2020 is experiencing delays and setbacks during development, and might even be delayed far into the future. If it is having that many issues during development, then it might not be using the well-charted engine that was already used for Modern Warfare. Still, issues in development can stem from many other parts of the process, not just a buggy engine. Problems with design, implementation, or balancing might be holding up development instead.
At the very least, CoD 2020 may change up a few of the complaints with Modern Warfare, from map design to interactable doors. Black Ops has always been home to a faster, closer, and more frenetic type of combat than Modern Warfare, which usually has slightly larger and more complex maps. Many Modern Warfare fans have been craving small maps, as evidenced by fan-favorite playlists like Shipment 24/7. How that style of combat will translate into battle royale remains to be seen, but it will definitely need to set itself apart from the current Warzone in order to find much success.
Implications of CoD 2020
Many of the most successful FPS franchises these days take a very different approach than the traditional Call of Duty model. Games like Rainbow 6 Siege, Counter Strike, Overwatch, and Battlefield have relied on releasing a single title with constant content updates, making most of their money on cosmetics, rather than new game sales. Modern Warfare seems to be taking a similar approach with regular seasonal updates, and it has been extremely successful. It might not make sense to do a yearly release of new Call of Duty games at this point, given the massive, continued success of Modern Warfare and the expense of developing new games.
Perhaps the long wait for CoD 2020 is a sign that Activision will move towards a slower release schedule for Call of Duty titles, spacing out Modern Warfare and Black Ops more than a year apart for the foreseeable future. Even now, Black Ops will have to be one knockout game if it’s going to draw fans from Modern Warfare. On top of that, drawing fans from Modern Warfare would likely be bad business in the first place. CoD 2020’s biggest competitor should be Battlefield 6, not another Call of Duty title. For now, all anyone can do is wait and see how it all pans out, and hope that whatever ends up happening will mean more good games and better content for fans.
Call of Duty 2020 is in development.
