Warzone & competitive CoD are being killed by Activision\u2019s obsession with money Activision \/ PexelsThe Call of Duty franchise, especially with the advent of Warzone, is as big as ever. Yet, Activision\u2019s profit tunnel vision is destabilizing the games\u2019 competitive scenes, their foundation, and the future of CoD. There is no disputing that Call of Duty makes a lot of money. Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War, Vanguard, CoD: Mobile, and \u2013 above all else \u2013 Warzone have all been commercial successes. While Activision Blizzard shareholders and executives are therefore likely content with the franchise\u2019s model, their prioritization is weakening the FPS title\u2019s foundation. While money is spent on flashy marketing and casual-first content, the game\u2019s most competitive and passionate players are being shoved further aside. The company\u2019s stance toward striking Warzone quality testers is emblematic of the wider problem. \u201cQuality\u201d is a nebulous term among CoD\u2019s caretakers and short-term profits have blinded them to long-term, foundational issues that are pushing players away and making the franchise vulnerable to competitors. Call of Duty and Warzone\u2019s communities reach breaking point \u201cI guess I\u2019m the fool.\u201d@Nadeshot reflecting on 100T\u2019s investment due to Call of Duty\u2019s current state \ud83d\ude2c Lots of work for Activision to do once they\u2019re back from holiday break pic.twitter.com\/IApSgycEnn \u2014 Dexerto Esports (@DexertoEsports) December 30, 2021 Over the past few days, the competitive CoD scene has essentially imploded. One of Warzone\u2019s biggest all-time players, Aydan, left the game for Apex Legends (just as NICKMERCS did earlier). On Twitter, CDL pros and team owners like Nadeshot spilled their somber souls. Their main issues are relatively fixable \u2013 they want ranked modes, balanced competitive games, and \u2013 more than anything else \u2013 transparency about these items and fixes for bugs, mechanics, and balancing. While complaints of some rich streamers, pros, and execs may not feel obviously tied to the casual base, they are. Competitive gamers provide free marketing for a title, as their content promotes the game across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. Aydan left for Apex, Nadeshot called himself a \u201cfool\u201d for buying into the CDL, and CoD\u2019s GOAT, Crimsix, says developers \u201care not interested in making a great video game.\u201d The franchise\u2019s most passionate scene is in shambles. The trickle-down effect of ignoring competitive players It\u2019s obvious that the people at the very top of the COD franchise are not interested in making a great video game. Annual releases are an illusion(blatant reskins) to sell more product. They are only focused on making it \u201cgood enough\u201d to keep this cycle going. ^the real problem^ \u2014 FaZe Crimsix (@Crimsix) December 30, 2021 For years, CoD has been the de facto console FPS in the Western world. This, coupled with recent success, has enabled Activision\u2019s executives to falsely rest upon the laurels of their popularity. The question is: Would the franchise be as popular without the content its gamers provide? In a world where esports, streaming, and gaming content gain more impressions each year, the answer is obvious. If CoD\u2019s directors keep shelving the pleas of their most passionate players, those players will lose interest or be poached by competitors. Just look at Apex Legends taking Warzone\u2019s viewership crown or Halo Infinite overtaking the CDL\u2019s excitement for clear examples. Once CoD gradually loses its top-level gamers, its content will dry up and casuals will grow more curious about rival titles. This is a logically sound expectation and one whose process has already begun. Activision have the budget, but lack the vision, to fix CoD https:\/\/twitter.com\/sydney_sweeney\/status\/1468654286397579267 At this point, it\u2019s hard to believe Activision have the foresight to build CoD\u2019s future. Top players are outraged on social media, casual players can\u2019t even play on their consoles, and the company doesn\u2019t seem to have made either party\u2019s concerns a priority. So, enough of the flashy marketing and obsession with short-term profits. Activision need to pay their employees, enable said employees to fix their games, and save the franchise\u2019s future. Since Warzone\u2019s March 2020 release, around $9 million has been awarded in prizing \u2013 much of it coming from Activision\u2019s pockets. In that time, the company has also marketed its titles with sparkly names like actress Sydney Sweeney and pop culture phenomenon Guy Fieri. Marketing the game, with tournament support and media collaborations, is swell. Yet those efforts feel like empty gestures when real needs are outright ignored. Instead, the community has practically been gaslit into believing their concerns will be addressed (remember Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games\u2019 promises?). Still, we can\u2019t even be upset with the developers, who work under the umbrella of a company alleged to dismiss employee wellbeing and ignore its striking QA team. And we can\u2019t be mad at CDL employees either, with one recently explaining just how little support they felt when trying to nurture the esport. Call of Duty\u2019s problems are the consequence of a short-term vision that sees dollar signs in microtransactions and popularity but forgets that the game\u2019s foundation is built on passion and competition. If Warzone and competitive CoD are going to reach their potential, one of two things needs to happen: 1) Every other AAA game developer must promise to never create a competitor, or 2) Activision need to start spending at least some of their money on the right goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warzone & competitive CoD are being killed by Activision\u2019s obsession with money Activision \/ PexelsThe Call of Duty franchise, especially with the advent of Warzone, is as big as ever. Yet, Activision\u2019s profit tunnel vision is destabilizing the games\u2019 competitive scenes, their foundation, and the future of CoD. There is no disputing that Call of […]<\/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-33055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33055","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=33055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}