There are crazy rumours swirling regarding Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII right now, as word has emerged that it may be the first entry in the franchise to scrap its single player campaign. While the series is synonymous with its multiplayer these days, its set-piece laden stories have always formed a big part of the package – although not this time apparently.
According to a Polygon report citing sources close to the project, the single player was scrapped as it became obvious that Treyarch couldn’t complete it in time for the title’s 12th October launch date. The team is instead investing its efforts into expanding the release’s multiplayer and co-op features, with the uber-popular Zombies mode set to make a return.
Even more interestingly, Charlie Intel has corroborated the rumour, and it claims that Raven Software has been tasked with creating a Battle Royale mode to fill the gap. The likes of PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have really popularised this style of multiplayer over the past year, and Activision has already hinted that it sees potential in the format.
While we’ll need to wait until 17th May for the game’s full reveal, these rumours certainly sound realistic to us. What’s even more interesting is that a remaster of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is supposedly in the works, but it will apparently only feature single player and no multiplayer at all. Perhaps the publisher thinks the two products will complement each other?
[source polygon.com]
Comments 46
Wow Activision you saved me money again after the terrible Beta of WW2. My younger brother asked why it was so ugly. 😁
And are they for real MW2 had the best multiplayer thats probably why canned it. Otherwise BO4 would be obsolete. Oh yeah and we get Battle Royale. I hate it already so no singleplayer but for this crap and its gonna be full priced with a seasonpass and microtransactions. Oh dont forget the cosmetic lootboxes because thats alright. 🤣🤑👎
Ridiculous if true. Whats the point in calling it BLOPS 4 if it doesnt continue the story. Might as well put any old name on the box. Id file this as a rumour until told otherwise, and if true certainly not a game i would buy
Wow.... after last year's mandatory day 1 patch to even play single player I'm not even surprised. I played through the ww2 campaign twice. As a person who usually finishes these campaigns. I WONT be buying this. I have my multiplayer only games covered in R6 seige.. sad sad day.
Very interesting rumour. Part of me thinks that most of Call of Duty's fanbase only cares about multiplayer so this isn't a big issue, but I can see it causing a stink in hardcore gamer circles.
The question is: if there is no single player, can Activision stop people from labelling this half arsed? And if they can't, how many casual "one game per year" types are going to pick Red Dead instead?
I sense a U turn coming...
@KALofKRYPTON Way too late for that if they stopped working on it. I guess they could maybe add it as an expansion later?
@get2sammyb Outside of the seasonpass ofcourse so we can pay extra. 😁
Pahahahahahahahaha what an instant no buy!
Last 3 CODs multiplayer was total garbage, the singleplayer at least made it a little bit worth to play! So yeah...no thanks!
@Flaming_Kaiser Of course.
@get2sammyb I don't know the exact numbers but Activision has said in the past that a small amount of people play the single player campaign. Let's be honest MP is always where CoD made the money at and right now MP Battle Royale games are the big money makers now.
Campaign is the only reason I would buy since I enjoyed the last three Black Ops campaigns so much. If this is true, it's such a blatant rip off of stuff that's currently popular.
@Tasuki I'm sure people don't play them, but you're already seeing on this thread the reaction. It's even more negative on sites like Reset Era.
Whether these people would have actually bought the game to begin with, though, is up for debate.
@get2sammyb While sure they are people out there that do play and enjoy the campaign in the end it's not what make the majority of the money. Yes one can argue that MP brings in more then enough money to cover the campaign but there's only so much they can work on and still have the game out in time. The modes that make the most and have the longest life span are MP, and Zombies so surely they won't get rid of those but campaign......
And now the number one game leading the market is slavishly following trends. The industry has come full circle.
@get2sammyb Are they really calling it IIII? 4 in Roman numerals is IV. IIII just looks stupid.
And you really need to sta off Reset Era, gonna give yourself an ulcer. Or die laughing. Could go either way.
As I never play any multiplayer, on any game (mostly due to me being useless playing against others) I only ever buy games for the single player campaign. So, for me, that's one less game for me to think about during the busy period of game releases. I have tried CoD multiplayer several times and rage quit every time. Whilst everyone else is elite S.A.S, I'm constantly in "noob" mode contributing to others kill streaks. On the single player campaign, though, I'm popping head shot after head shot and bringing out my inner chuck norris lol. So I tend to enjoy that experience more.
@rjejr
You missed th articles where this was first brought up. Actually llll is the original way to write the numeral and lV came later. I think Sammy even said his clock is llll. I’ve seen it a few times before also.
@rjejr Actually IIII is correct as well. Watch makers use it in place of IV as well as some other things.
Well that's just bollocks if true! I remember hearing somewhere that Blops 4 campaign was going to be a modern day setting, which is exactly what I wanted! (with co-op like 3 had)
You can keep your mouldy chicken dinner Activision, no thanks
Oh dear, I was gonna think about, but not of this is true. COD started on excellent campaigns. It needs to return. It’s a bad idea. It’s gonna reduce the hardcore gamer buying big time. And I think it’ll get enough negative press to begin swaying casuals as if a game gets enough trash talk from serious gamers, it’s got to bleed out to their friends.
This is good for it long term though, this could make a big impact on sales, and then it might take a year off for once since it’s COD2. It’ll make it mean something for a COD game to release again. Burn so they can rebuild!
I think we are just seeing the natural evolution of an aging franchise. @Tasuki is more in line with the cod fanbase where as the rest if us can get are single player kicks elsewhere. The last campaigns that I played I can barely remember. Kevin Spacey was in one, they have probably removed him with a patch now.
That would warrant a hard pass from me, COD multiplayer becomes a ghost town as soon as the next iteration releases.
If its true(somehow I think its not) I wonder how a BR mode would work with CoDs limited amount of players, 18 max?...wasn't there a rumour that the new battlefield would have BR too? that could be fun and dice already have a few things in place like vehicles, map size and more players per match(64)add in the destruction that battlefield is known for and it could be a great twist on the BR theme and a lot more believable than the CoD rumour.
I figured this was going to happen with CoD sooner or later. I'm just surprised with the sudden shift from campaign to battle royale. Guess time will tell.
Activision?
If they drop the campaign, I don't think people will buy cod every years and will play online mode on their old cod instead. Even sport games like fifa, madden and mlb has single player story mode now.
I like single player story on cod games, as long as the story is good. Maybe activision want cod to become gaas, make the games once and update it forever with new dlc and micro transaction.
I was never going to play this, not a fan of games like Call of Duty, battlefield, Modern Warfare etc.
I only ever played the CoD games for the single players. Never even tried playing multi-player.
Admitting i have not purchase a CoD game for about 3 years. Before then, i brought the game each year.
Although i probably pick up a game cheap in the future. Just not this one.
Lack of singleplayer really hurt games like the first dice battlefront. I know we're an echo chamber that doesn't represent the COD fan base but imagine it will have an impact on serious gamers. However always amazes me how many folk let their kids play COD and battle royal mode will sell like hotcakes to them.
@gingerfrog Depends on how far back you go. The use of numerals switched several times (usually for trivial reasons), but 'IV' remained because it's far more useful. The subtraction method saves you a lot of space when writing big numbers.
Now I don't think they'll milk COD:BO that much, so I won't be a big problem, but I do think that it looks kinda stupid. III and IIII are very similar at first glance, another reason why IV was preferred over IIII.
I really enjoy Treyarch campaigns, but they've gotten kind of meh since the second Black Ops.
I'm really burnt out on Battle Royale. It's a dead meme. Normies killed it.
Activision marketing team knee jerk reaction here, "gotta get a slice of that warm battle royale pie!"
Going off PSN trophies, approx 25-30% finish the campaign in COD. Not an insignificant minority that should be ignored. Guess the big thing is they can’t monetise the campaign as much as MP. Wonder if they push monetisation too hard and end up being like BF2.
I am much more interested in a fully fledged 100% Single player, story-driven Call of Duty. A solid go-to shooter without the toxic online multiplayer community. This would also be a great entery point for people new to the series or those who want to hone their skills but might be intimidated or otherwise just not want to compete against other living/breathing players.
I always knew this battle royale crap would ruin things in gaming.
To have it replace SP is just awfull.
You never know...maybe they'll price it accordingly at £25-£30...then again maybe I'll wake tomorrow with a full head of hair...LOL!!
I find this very hard to believe.
Personally I don't tend to buy multiplayer-only shooters as to me they seem worth less than the full price they try and sell them for.
Not surprised that they'd add a Battle Royale mode though, as an equivalent to 'War' from WW2.
They wouldnt know how to make a map big enough for battle royal. They would stick 100 guys in a nuketown size map and be done with it.
I would be surprised if true because bombastic SP has been the hallmark of the series. However it is the most expensive element to make and if they think people would prefer BR over it then maybe.
@Tasuki @gingerfrog Thanks. Can't recall ever seeing IIII on a watch, but then again I've never looked that closely. And I suppose it makes sense for the game as they are going for the military insignia look of 4 stripes, but while the 4 graphically stripes look good, they look weird as 4 letter I. Maybe if we all agree to bold the I as IIII it will look less weird?
Rollins approves the boldface.
And thanks to @Octane for chiming in.
Black Ops was really the only line that I enjoyed the campaign. That said, it probably makes sense to just cut single player from COD and sell a finished MP title instead.
about 25% finished WW2 campaign, and 21% reached prestige 1 in multiplayer (which didn't really take that long).. 25% is still 3m+ players, so i'd be surprised if a campaign is dropped entirely. i thought the whole point of changing CoD to three-year cycles was to give the studios more time to develop the games rather than the pressue to finish them in two like it used to be.. it's not like the formula has massively changed, so for if treyarch have only managed to produce a multiplayer / zombies components, something must have gone wrong..
Ughh, publisher just riding the current trend, how lame. I thought black ops 1 had one of the best fps campaigns out there. From there on out it just got stale.
@Tasuki Its only to push the release before RDR 2 nothing more kinda funny how little trust they have in their on IP. 😀😂🤣
@Ichiban I hated the BO3 campaign the first i never finished
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Come on its Activision the probably have the balls to add lootdrops, microtransactions and a seasonpass
@tameshiyaku Indeed still my favorite one
@Flaming_Kaiser Honestly trust has nothing to do with it, it's all about sales. CoD is the most selling game every year, the only years it hasn't been was when a Rockstar game comes out, case in point GTAV. So it's not really not trusting their I.P. it's just the sales history.
A true next gen game indeed.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...