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With Black Ops 4 going campaign-less, would this be a sign of the future of COD games?

I used be in the minority of playing COD games only for the campaigns and not the multiplayer. I always enjoyed them, even with how lackluster they became in recent years. But seeing this happen with Black Ops, I can't help but feel it's not right. I get why Activision did it but, despite its brand recognition, I think it should have been named something else and not Black Ops. I don't know, it seems people are excited for it. But for those who did enjoy the campaigns going all the way back to part 1, it just sucks how it ended up being that way.

How does anyone feel about this?
 
I understand why they removed the campaign, but there are still some players who enjoyed the campaign mode like myself. If that’s the future of cod, I’m definitely done.

If this cod even remotely succeeds, then campaign mode in cod will probably be a thing of the past since it would help save the company development costs and time. I don’t want this future, but I’m in the minority.......
 
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Larxia

Member
It does not surprise me that they decided to go this way, however, I know this would never happen but I think that the game should have been cheaper since there is no campaign, making a campaign is a big part of the budget of a game, and they completely got rid of that, while the multiplayer will mostly remain the same (other than battle royale) as the previous games which had campaigns. I know it may seems naive to say that, I totally get it, but that doesn't make me accepting things like this.
 

Kacho

Member
I don’t think so. Treyarch tried something different with BLOPS 3 and it failed spectacularly. Based on interviews they were doing the same thing with BLOPS4 but it wasn’t really coming together and it was around the time BR blew up. I think they saw that as their opportunity to try something completely new.

IW’s COD game is next year and it’s been rumored to be Modern Warfare 4. They’ve also been hiring back talent from Respawn that worked on the older MW titles. I think we’ll see a good single player campaign next year.
 
it should have been a different name man... the stoey of black ops 1 and 2 (imho) was different and awesome at the same time. i hope this multiplayer-only wont be a tradition for them
 

LordKite

Neo Member
Thank god all the news that the next CoD will have SP. I got into the series for the SP, and while I do enjoy the MP, at least I used to, the SP was almost always good. 1, 2, 4, mw2 and 3, blops 1 and 2, AW and IW all were good in my books.

I really believe the info that they had something big planned for this but it wasn't panning out, but that sucks. Why be Black Ops 4 if it doesnt continue the story? Just be CoD Blackout at that point.

Good to know IW still want SP, though. My major fear was that the excellent BR mode would cause so many sales that they justified the cancellation of the SP for CoD period.
 
I just do not think they will continue to add costly single player campaigns to certain cod games while other ones that do not feature campaign modes are making the company money as well.

If the online cod financially performs relatively close to the full fledged cod games with campaigns, I’m willing to bet they will eliminate the campaign mode from all of them.

No campaign cod is most likely a test.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Base on their explanation of why they didn't add SP on BO4 in interview it seems they care a lot more about social gaming than SP games and I'm guessing Activation wants that as well because online part is where they can make most money and they don't want waste resource for SP.

With that all being said I'm pleasantly surprised that Activision willing to invest on Sekiro which is pure SP game with no online mode unlike Soul games.
 
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Games like Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege have proved that MP titles can last way beyond their release and be commercial and critical successes.

If next years COD is Single Player only and Treyarch keep rolling out updates and/or map packs then I am cool with that. Treyarch are clearly the best MP studio Activision has.
 
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Elcid

Banned
Think about how much they're saving in just voice acting. They were trying to get big name celebrities in every campaign.
 

J-Roderton

Member
If all of the extra resources go into making the multiplayer that much better, then go for it. I do know two people personally that play probably 95% of the time only the campaign modes for COD so I'm sure they won't be buying this round.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Depends on how BLOPS 4 will sell. If people will buy it and won't complain about yearly updates to standard MP and to battle royale then Activision will be very happy. It's a greedy company and making a high quality SP campaign always costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
i get why they removed the sp campaign.
blops 3 had hands down the worst sp campaign in any cod ever.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Yeah Black Ops 3's single player was awful. They threw in Christopher Meloni and the pacing was awful. You could access the last level from just booting the game up for the very first time. I personally think they lack the vision for a single player. Imagine this fall all their execs are telling them that "Single player is dead in Call of Duty" and then wait till someone outdoes them or we get sick of the Battle Royal.

The biggest thing that CoD is doing is going after Fortnite and PUBG. Of course they don't want to focus on Single Player. They want to go after the games making the multi millions right now.

Medal of Honor sucked when it went to modern day combat. It literally killed the brand if you ask me. Modern Warfare and Black Ops did well with an SP, so did Sledgehammer with Advanced Warfare. There is more than enough room for a good SP in Call of Duty. We need those "Dear John"/espionage/infiltrate the nuclear silo SP campaigns. Otherwise that part of gaming is lost to your Nuke Town maps and DLC Zombies packs.

IMO they are fighting a trend in gaming. WW2's campaign was alright. Nothing to really take away from it. It was very well made, but the dialogue and so forth was meh. I got more from the Fury movie than I did WW2. I remember quite a bit, but I don't need to replay it.

Its like with Medal of Honor Frontline; storming the beach and going after enemies at their bases is something that makes video games so great. Killing it for team chatter and team deathmatch is only temporary. Call of Duty went from having a controversial/theatrical/over the top campaign to what? Skins? Some loud mouth on the over end of the team chat? Where's the next character like Soap? or "All warfare is based on deception". Where is that? They had us run with our father and brother in Ghosts. Now a days we all want to look like a WWE character. They should make us all buy Ford pickup trucks now.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
i get why they removed the sp campaign.
blops 3 had hands down the worst sp campaign in any cod ever.
They didn't remove it because BLOPS 3 campaign was bad. They removed it because a work in progress version of BLOPS 4 campaign turned out to be a mess.
 
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48086

Member
I've always enjoyed the campaigns but I have had more fun with the Blackout beta than any campaign. I'm just fine if they axe the campaign as long as multiplayer is done very well.
 

Akuza89

Member
I haven't bought the last 3 cod games, but the last ones I did, I didn't touch the campaign and went straight to multiplayer...

Let's be honest, this is what majority of people do with the game always have since cod4, just to get that headstart on everyone else..

I understand why they've done it, but drop the price on the game if it is just the multiplayer and zombies, even just a little bit by like £10 or something, it'll encourage people to purchase the game more that way, especially with the new "blackout" mode.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
They didn't remove it because BLOPS 3 campaign was bad. They removed it because a work in progress version of BLOPS 4 campaign turned out to be a mess.
yes they are not capable of making a good sp campaign.
as they proved with blops 3.
What's the difference?
 

xrnzaaas

Member
yes they are not capable of making a good sp campaign.
as they proved with blops 3.
What's the difference?
I wouldn't be so harsh, it was possible they could've learned from their mistakes and read the player feedback. ;) Guess they didn't.
 

Codes 208

Member
Im surprised they didnt drop campaign several installments ago. They havent made a good campaign since either blops2 or mw3. By Ghosts it just felt more and more cliche and riddled with michael bay explosions for the sake of it.

Infinire warfare tried to have a good campaign but by this point i disnt give a shit anymore. And titanfall 2's robo-buddy campaign was better anyway (which goes to show where all the talent from IW went)

Im not sad its gone. Iirc they atleast confirmed a spec ops-like mission mode for solo and coop shenanigans, theres just nothing narrative driven. Though honestly, from my experience with this beta, im certain 90% of my time will be in blackout.
 
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Stuart360

Member
I wouldnt read too much into Blops 4, it seems they chose a Battle Royal mode over the campaign after complications.
Its probably changed over the last few years but i remember reading an interview with Activision a few years ago (I believe it was when the first Battlefront reboot was confirmed to not have a campaign) where they said that more than 50% of COD players never touch MP, and thats why they keep doing campaigns for these games.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
I wouldn't be so harsh, it was possible they could've learned from their mistakes and read the player feedback. ;) Guess they didn't.
aye so it will be the first cod i dont care about.
but if they managed to make the BR mode run offline. with bots
i will be impressed
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
As an outsider to the series, I think we've genuinely reached the point where the fanbase doesn't care. 10 years ago? A campaign-less FPS would've only found success on PC. But with the rise of F2P on console I think an online-only FPS is perfectly viable. It was always going to be someone big like Activision or EA to push it anyway. Even Sony couldn't get their online-focused offerings to stick (M.A.G, Warhawk, Starhawk, SOCOM, etc) so it's no surprise that a lot of devs are leery about putting themselves out there.
 
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Base on their explanation of why they didn't add SP on BO4 in interview it seems they care a lot more about social gaming than SP games and I'm guessing Activation wants that as well because online part is where they can make most money and they don't want waste resource for SP.

With that all being said I'm pleasantly surprised that Activision willing to invest on Sekiro which is pure SP game with no online mode unlike Soul games.

I don't know where this sudden urge to play COD campaigns comes from when every year people dump on them for being cookie cutter corridor shooters with Micheal Bay setpieces.

Honestly I'd much rather prefer what you stated above. We know COD is a MP focused game. Let them focus on the MP, polish it and load it up with tons of game modes, maps, weapons, etc as they seem to be doing with BO4. This game is likely to blow up because of how many fanbases it caters to - MP, BR, zombies. If Activision then reinvests even a fraction of that profit in a proper SP driven game such as Sekiro, that's a HUGE win for gamers in general rather than having a shoehorned in flimsy COD campaign that probably costs several times more to make by itself than a game like Sekiro.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I don't know where this sudden urge to play COD campaigns comes from when every year people dump on them for being cookie cutter corridor shooters with Micheal Bay setpieces.

Honestly I'd much rather prefer what you stated above. We know COD is a MP focused game. Let them focus on the MP, polish it and load it up with tons of game modes, maps, weapons, etc as they seem to be doing with BO4. This game is likely to blow up because of how many fanbases it caters to - MP, BR, zombies. If Activision then reinvests even a fraction of that profit in a proper SP driven game such as Sekiro, that's a HUGE win for gamers in general rather than having a shoehorned in flimsy COD campaign that probably costs several times more to make by itself than a game like Sekiro.
If they want to make MP only COD game they should do it. They should be free to make what they want to make but my question is why even call it BO4 in first place? I heard BO series had unique SP compare to other COD and I’m sure it had fans that enjoy that SP. by calling the MP only COD game “BO4” they just willingly pissing off those fan base. Why?
 

DiscoJer

Member
Yeah, as a branding issue, this could cause some confusion. A COD with no single player? How many people are going to realize this before buying? Especially as it's a mainline entry (4)

The other thing is does the online only model work on a yearly basis? Or even 2 years? You might be able to get people to buy a multiplayer only BO4, but will they buy BO5 in 2020? Multiplayer games have a lot more longevity, especially with the way they are monetized, because people are loathe to leave the stuff they spend money on.
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Nah Treyarch just didn't have anything.
Hence why IIII looks like an expansion to BLOPS3, because it is
And they just remove the part they wasn't good at.
Ironically multiplayer remains.
 

wipeout364

Member
Well I didn't pre order it and I have no intention of buying it without a campaign so that is one sale lost. I will buy if it ever deep discounts but I buy COD for everything SP included. To me none of it stands up as something I would pay full price for alone. It doesn't help that I have tried Fortnite and PUBG and don't like either so blackout mode holds no appeal to me.
 

lefty1117

Gold Member
I'm going to give a try what they've done this year, but I'm not down with the permanent removal of campaign. If it's the same in 2019 that will be it for me. I started playing this series when it first came out for the campaigns and I've largely enjoyed them all, even Infinite (actually, I quite liked that one).
 
If they want to make MP only COD game they should do it. They should be free to make what they want to make but my question is why even call it BO4 in first place? I heard BO series had unique SP compare to other COD and I’m sure it had fans that enjoy that SP. by calling the MP only COD game “BO4” they just willingly pissing off those fan base. Why?

Yeah, that's my argument over it too. Why call it that? Yeah, there's brand recognition but people who don't know there won't be single player campaign and buys it because it says Black Ops will be disappointed. One can say "well they are gamers, they should read the news about it" and so forth, but you would be surprised how people buy games simply by doing window shopping without knowing anything about the game outside of the cover.
 

MayauMiao

Member
Sure looks like it. If Black Ops 4 had campaign I am sure we will hear about how the game sucked because its nothing but a huge Michael Bay set piece. COD was on its way down anyway so if having BR is probably the only way Activision can inject a new life to the series. So far its working.
 

Barakov

Gold Member
It still irks me that it isn't there. World at War, BLOPS1 and 2 had great campaigns. But I can understand why they they did the BR thing as it's still a very popular mode with a lot of people. If they launched this at $40 I would've been in day 1 but now I'll be waiting for a price drop.
 

Stuart360

Member
I still think we will get campaigns in at least some of the upcoming COD's. The only problem i see is that because of the BR mode in Blops4, its probably going to sell huge, maybe the most out of recent COD's, and i can see Activision thinking "oh well no campaign and we sell this many, it looks like people weren't bothered about no campaign in the end", and suddenly dropping campaigns from future games.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
It’s fine for me that they removed the campaign. Even though I have completed all the CoD campaigns I’m primarily an online player, so having more online content at the cost of a campaign is completely fine by me.

aye so it will be the first cod i dont care about.
but if they managed to make the BR mode run offline. with bots
i will be impressed

Why on earth would you play against bots instead of real people?
 
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Hulk_Smash

Banned
It’s fine for me that they removed the campaign. Even though I have completed all the CoD campaigns I’m primarily an online player, so having more online content at the cost of a campaign is completely fine by me.



Why on earth would you play against bots instead of real people?

Presumably to get better. Online shooters, especially COD, have a massive skill curve. It would be nice to have that mode or at least a mode where you can freely explore the map without getting destroyed in the first five minutes.

But yeah with BR, I can’t imagine it being all that fun with bots.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Presumably to get better. Online shooters, especially COD, have a massive skill curve. It would be nice to have that mode or at least a mode where you can freely explore the map without getting destroyed in the first five minutes.

But yeah with BR, I can’t imagine it being all that fun with bots.

But no matter how good you’ll get against bots, it would never be the same against real players.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
It’s fine for me that they removed the campaign. Even though I have completed all the CoD campaigns I’m primarily an online player, so having more online content at the cost of a campaign is completely fine by me.



Why on earth would you play against bots instead of real people?

Why on earth would you buy a game you can't play when servers shut down?
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Why on earth would you buy a game you can't play when servers shut down?

CoD don’t run on servers, but peer 2 peer connection. Heck I can even still find online games in Bad Company 1 on Xbox One though BC.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
CoD don’t run on servers, but peer 2 peer connection. Heck I can even still find online games in Bad Company 1 on Xbox One though BC.
yeah good luck with waiting to fill that many slots in BR mode in the future. Or when you have no internet.

Nah imma stick with games that don't become worthless when "buy our new game when 12.0 comes out" as the user base migrates.

Modern gaming culture really is different.
At least the old games had sp.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
yeah good luck with waiting to fill that many slots in BR mode in the future. Or when you have no internet.

Nah imma stick with games that don't become worthless when "buy our new game when 12.0 comes out" as the user base migrates.

Modern gaming culture really is different.
At least the old games had sp.

I ain’t buying blops 4 for BR but the normal mp :) you can almost always pick up a old CoD game and find active players in them.
 

WaterAstro

Member
The price point should reflect this change, but they are doing away with singleplayer and still making people buy DLCs.

Vote with your wallet, but people are stuck in their ways.
 
tbh games like cod and bf only mainly bought to play with friends, not alot of folks go out and say i need to pay 60 dollars for the new cod story.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
The only reason there wasn’t a campaign this year I believe is because of time constraints (yearly release schedule)

CoD has had some memorable campaigns (COD4, W@W and most recently WWII) so I’d be a shame to totally scrap it.
 
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