CoD Mobile exclusive: General Manager reflects on past & future after Season 9 release ActivisionCall of Duty Mobile released just over two years ago and in that time, the handheld iteration of Activision\u2019s top FPS franchise has become an unstoppable force of its own. Dexerto sat down with the development team once again to reflect on the game\u2019s journey and preview what the next two years may have in store. It\u2019s been two years since CoD Mobile started appearing on app stores around the world. For one of Activision\u2019s first attempts at capturing the handheld FPS market, it\u2019s been a rapid ascension through the rankings with more than 500 million downloads now tallied up. Not only has CoD Mobile become a \u2018greatest hits\u2019 of sorts for the CoD franchise, with classic maps, modes, and weapons constantly on rotation, but the handheld title has also paved its own way with unique additions, a neatly interwoven esports scene, and plenty of nifty ideas along the way. It\u2019s a never-ending stream of fresh updates and new experiences that keeps players coming back and even \u201cblows away\u201d seasoned veterans used to the cadence of the mainline franchise. It comes as no surprise then, that the dev team is more than pleased by CoD Mobile\u2019s success. To look back on those early years, delve into some of the bigger hurdles, and preview what\u2019s to come, we spoke with CoD Mobile\u2019s General Manager Matt Lewis. Two years of CoD Mobile in the books Although CoD Mobile is currently on track to \u201cexceed $1 billion\u201d in revenue this year alone, making it one of Activision\u2019s hottest properties, the development team hasn\u2019t been caught off guard by this degree of success. \u201cBefore we launched, we were really proud of what we had made,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cBut until you really get it out into the world you can never be sure.\u201d While nerves may have been a factor initially, it was \u201cwithin a week of launching\u201d that the team realized they were onto something big. \u201cWe knew we had a great game on our hands and the momentum since then has been amazing.\u201d Now available in most major handheld markets, the team is witnessing a surge in both \u201cnew players downloading the game\u201d and \u201cexisting players coming back.\u201d It\u2019s an upward trend they \u201cdefinitely want to see continuing\u201d as the seasons fly by. \u201cWe are really proud of the game and it\u2019s showing no signs of slowing down.\u201d From recapturing the essence of CoD Zombies to unleashing its own battle royale component, many of CoD Mobile\u2019s individual modes now \u201chave their own audience,\u201d Lewis explained. But while Warzone is available through its own separate launcher across PC and console, similarly popular handheld modes won\u2019t be following suit, at least not anytime soon. \u201cMany of our players play the whole range of modes and move between freely. Right now, we\u2019re focused on continuing down this road.\u201d Even with a separate handheld CoD title in development, don\u2019t expect to see CoD Mobile\u2019s offerings split across multiple apps in the near future. Bringing one of CoD\u2019s biggest maps to the smallest devices yet Halloween may be in focus for the time being as Season 9 gets underway, but it was Season 8 that brought one of the biggest additions to CoD Mobile yet. Both figuratively and literally. CoD\u2019s original battle royale map, Black Ops 4\u2019s Blackout, made its way into the handheld experience in September. As one of the most significant updates thus far in the game\u2019s two-year lifespan, Lewis described it as a \u201creally big milestone\u201d for the title. \u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge to take something from one title or platform and move it to another,\u201d he outlined. \u201cBut Blackout has been such a popular map that we wanted our mobile players to experience it as well.\u201d \u201cFrom start to finish\u201d this huge undertaking took the developers \u201cseveral months\u201d to nail down. \u201cAt the time it launched, Blackout was the largest and most detailed Call of Duty map ever, and that includes more models, textures, and unique assets than any other map. With that, the challenge is always to ensure it runs on a range of devices and the feeling is consistent across a wide range of environments, which we feel we\u2019ve been successful at.\u201d \u201cWhile it is a long process,\u201d Lewis reaffirmed, \u201csince launching the game in 2019, our development team has become very good at finding efficiencies and getting the most out of mobile hardware.\u201d Could the Warzone experience be coming to CoD Mobile? Looking ahead to the future of CoD Mobile, it\u2019s entirely likely we see the same pattern continuing on. That being a blend of original and ported content with each seasonal update. So while the standard influx of mainline maps and weapons are safe bets, where does that leave CoD\u2019s bigger offerings in recent years? Specifically, could we see Warzone\u2019s Verdansk or even Rebirth Island jumping over for the handheld community anytime soon? Lewis couldn\u2019t confirm what the dev team is planning \u201cbeyond Season 9,\u201d though that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s necessarily off the table. In fact, he advised fans to \u201cwatch this space\u201d for big announcements on the horizon. The game\u2019s general manager said: \u201cWe are always looking for new ways to bring revised content as well as brand new experiences to CoD Mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CoD Mobile exclusive: General Manager reflects on past & future after Season 9 release ActivisionCall of Duty Mobile released just over two years ago and in that time, the handheld iteration of Activision\u2019s top FPS franchise has become an unstoppable force of its own. Dexerto sat down with the development team once again to reflect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}