Streamer on Warzone: Worst Battle Royale; PS5 and XSX Launch Planned
The developers of Call of Duty: Warzone have assured us of their planned long-term support for the game, including its release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This coincided with a commet from Jaryd „Summit1g” Lazar, who called the title the worst battle royalty on the market.
- GamerGen service has interviewed Taylor Kurosaki from Infinity Ward and Amos Hodge from Raven Software about Call of Duty: Warzone;
- The creators stated that the free battle royale is supposed to accompany the series for a longer period of time and to be a bridge between the successive instalments of the series;
- The game will be supported on ninth generation consoles, namely PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X;
- At the same time, the popular streamer Jaryd "Summit1g" Lazar criticized CoD: Warzone for the desig of Verdansk map and called the game the worst battle royale available on the market.
Released in March, Call of Duty: Warzone quickly took a prominent place in the battle royal market as one of the most popular productions of its kind. However, the question remains: how long do the creators intend to support this side-installment of the well-known and, importantly, annual FPS series? Apparently much longer than a typical part of the series, as suggested by an interview for GamerGen. During the interview, Taylor Kurosaki (narrative director at Infinity Ward) described Warzone as a bridge between all new Call of Duty games. This battle royale title is to be "one constant element" among the brand's alternately resurfacing sub-series. This includes a port for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X:
"Call of Duty is a genre in itself, there are different branches in the Call of Duty tree, but they’re all connected in some ways. Warzone will be the through line that connects all of the different various sub-franchises of Call of Duty. It’s going to be really cool to see how the different sub-franchises sort of come in and out of focus, but Warzone will be the one constant."
This does not mean that Warzone is treated as an extra, added to every subsequent installment. As stated by Amos Hodge, creative director at Raven Software, the developers consider the game to be a full-fledged and somewhat independent production, with its own history and events not unsimilar (though less absurd) to those known from Fortnite. There are, of course, some problems, for example, with determining the basic (i.e. unchanged in subsequent rotations) content, including gameplay modes. The ongoing epidemic does not make things any easier either. Both studios involved in Warzone - Infinity Ward and Raven Software - have experience with remote working, but the lack of online connection in some employees and the inconvenience of discussing impressions from internal tests (it's hard to have a constructive conversation in a written chat with a few dozen people writing at the same time) is a problem for the developers.
Probaly every multiplayer game developer dreams that his title will be able to stay on the market for long, long years, such as games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or even Team Fortress 2. Another question is whether the community's interest in Warzone can really be sustained, even with the help of such a powerful brand as Call of Duty. This will definitely not be helped by opinions like those given by Jaryd Lazar, more widely known as Summit1g. The well-known streamer and former professional CSGO player expressed his feelings about the game during a recent stream, calling Warzone "the worst battle royale" on the market.
The complains of the American (repeated by other players) come down to one element that he spoke about back in March (via Dot Esports) - campers. Their presence alone wouldn't surpris ine any shooter, let alone in a battle royale, where the main goal is to stay alive as long as possible. However, Summit1g has long drawn attention to a problem characteristic of Warzone itself. We are talking about the construction of the map, or more precisely - a large number of tall buildings, practically inaccessible without the use of a helicopter.
The design features of Verdansk make many players take the roofs as a safe position, taking down enemies from above without much risk, which is a little bit at odds with the dynamic formula of battle royale (i.e. moving constantly to stay in a shrinking zone) Summt1g's stream was a perfect example of this. During the long car ride across the whole map the streamer did not encounter practically any moving rival, but every now and then he was greeted with bullets from individuals sitting on rooftops. In this situation the term "camping simulator" used by Lazar seems to be fully justified.
It's hard to deny that this is an important issue. Even the best balance of classes, weapons, drums, etc. will not provide a good gaming experience if the only available location is poorly designed. Of course, changes to the map are possible, and without this, the creators can make life harder for die-hard campers (Summit1g itself proposed to strengthen the air raids in March). There are also other problems, including those typical for online games (read: cheaters), and a recent update has added its own bunch of issues. However, the creators of Call of Duty: Warzone aren't likely to lack the ability and resources to develop and improve the production. Will it be enough for the game to stand the test of time - we'll see. For the time being, there is no sign that Warzone will lose its popularity anytime soon.
