Call of Duty: Warzone released on March 10th, 2020, and has been a sensational s꧙💎uccess since, achieving more than 60 million players as of , only tw🦂o months post-release. Since launch, there has been high acclaim for the game, along with pointed criticism, as developer Infinity Ward works through the kinks of mana♛ging a blockbuster global hit that caters to a broad spectrum of FPS players. In a review of decisions made in the first quarter since the game’s release, an important question has emerged: Is Infinity Ward actively catering to casual players in Warzone?
Free And Cross-Platform Is Certainly an Appeal To Theജ Masses
Popular Battle Royale games have delivered a new era for gamers, one in which it is becoming customary for major studios to produce high-quality games, and share them with the masses for free. While microtransa෴ctions can often be incredibly controversial, free games are often not controversial. Unfortunately, the two go hand-in-hand. They also provide an incredibly large market for developers to reach an aud🌌ience and provide legitimate access to revenue streams previously undiscovered. A recent study on the phenomenon cited as many as 90% of players 🦩have spent money on microtrans🐷actions, depending on the genre. Luring players in for free has appeal to the masses, including skilled and casual players alike.
Cross-platform play likewise seems a deliberate mass appealꦍ choice by Infinity Ward and moves online gaming by leaps and bounds. Interestingꦇ history emerges for certain games, with popular FPS franchises like Battlefield originally finding their core gamers on PC, only to find incredible console success with later titles. With the prior platform, region, and mode limitations, a gaming community was at high risk of being cut in thirds right out of the gate, prior to further fragmentation due to regionalization and time zones. Crossplay revolutionalizes this concept, especially when coupled with free. Play as long as you'd like, invite your friജends and family, and they can play with you no matter how they like to game.
Skill Based Matchmaking
Interestingly, Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward has stated that Skill Based Matchmaking does not exist. Popular COD players like🔯 Nadeshot and CouRage have called out SBMM on numerous occasions, raising the question of whether or not it actually exists. Data miner TheXclusiveAce decided to do a after top players and streamers continued to run into each other in lobbies, despite tens o🌄f millions of players worldwide🎉. The results suggest SBMM does indeed exist in Warzone. The former Studio Head of Sledgehammer Games, above, suggests that Infinity Ward may beꦍ telling the truth in that SBMM is not planned to be ༺used in Warzone, ho⛦wever, the publisher Activision may have implemented it. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Respawn, the developer for , has gone as far as explicitly stating they are using SBMM and will con🙈tinue to do so. The belo🉐w quote from Creative Director Chad Grenier sums up the justification for SBMM nicely:
“You want them to get intoღ the game, get engag🐟ed, get some kills, get some wins occasionally because if someone comes in and they try out Apex and they get stumped, ൩they're not going to keep playing the ga🦩me."
The Grau as Equalizer
It is fascinating that top tier players do not like getting steamrolled upon entering a match, but also don't want casual players to have the same experience they are seeking. No doubt, if 90% of players are keeping the lights on, shouldn’t Activision find a way to get them to keep coming back? This conun𝔉drum may in fact encourage developers and publishers to continue to seek a balanced experience in play. Enter other Warzone experiences to📖 the narrative, like the Grau, and the discussion gets even more interesting.
Many top players have criticized Infinity Ward for failing to nerf the Grau, calling it overpowered, and skill-less. The general consensus of the complaints center arou🌳nd the fact that players with no skill can use the weapon and successfully defeat players with greater skill. In the above Tweet, Crimsix cites two professional players, Maven and OctaneSam as an example. OctaneSam is well known for the incredible skill with weapons many have limited success with but suggests that using Grau’s, the two going head to head would be a toss-up every time. If pro players are making this claim, won’t these further developer notions of success, and giving all players a shot at kills and wins?
If Infinity Ward is seeking to continue to dominate the free to play battle royale market segm🗹ent, they are going to need more than top players to achieve this. They will financially rely upon the 90% who will contribute to keeping development active and ongoing. Are they catering to cas𝔍ual players? The above deep dive suggests so. If not, perhaps they should be, so this smash hit can continue to entertain us.
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