On YouTube, it is already said: Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is supposedly dead. MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider believes that this is a PR problem. One shouldn’t worry about the Battle Royale.
Is Warzone dead? No. Call of Duty is alive, Warzone 2 is doing well.
I have been covering the topics around CoD for over 3 years for MeinMMO, and if Call of Duty had died every time the big content creators released condolence videos, it would probably now be a pure … zombie franchise.
However, Call of Duty has problems. And that again in late January. Almost exactly a year ago, we titled on MeinMMO, that CoD is in its biggest crisis in years.
But that cannot be claimed at present. CoD MW2 is significantly more successful than its predecessor Vanguard and, along with Warzone 2, is among the biggest games on Steam (via steamcharts.com) – in addition, there are the players on consoles as well as the Battle.net launcher.
Also, the comparison of the streaming data from Twitch shows – in January 2023, things are going better again than a year before. You could account for about 5 million more viewer hours in January, despite a Twitch crisis.
- January 2022: approx. 48 million – Vanguard/Warzone
- January 2023: approx. 53 million – CoD MW2/Warzone
So why do many big creators see the second Warzone already at the end? Because there are 2 different types of players facing each other and Call of Duty wants to become easier rather than orienting itself towards the hardcore players.
If you’re on PlayStation, be sure to grab the free Combat Pack of Season 1 with PS Plus. You can see the items here in the video:
Call of Duty has a PR problem
Modern Warfare 2 did almost everything right until the release. They could generate a hype. After CoD: Cold War (2020) and Vanguard (2021) caused shrinking player numbers on PC and console, MW2 hit the nerve again. Boom – the most successful CoD premium release of all time.
But since then, they have been in a media downward spiral. The “loud” community on Twitch, reddit, Twitter agreed: Many design decisions of MW2 contribute to the game being less fun for them. Not just for them – they naturally spoke for the entire community.
On some things, one cannot disagree. For example, at the launch of MW2, no game statistics were saved, and in Warzone 2, the system is still not active. A real blow for fans, also for me an outrage. The general menu navigation is also abysmal.
However, many gameplay decisions look different.
Here, content creators, hardcore players, and casual players stand against each other. Those who just want to quickly farm a few kills for an hour after work. Modern Warfare 2 was made for those players. Call of Duty is meant for those players.
Even before the release of MW2, this discussion already arose for multiplayer:
Casual players, however, do not immediately run to Twitter and complain with a post about the state of the game. Casuals are not in this “bubble.” For them, these one or two hours in the evening decide whether the game is good, whether it is fun.
Warzone and Call of Duty in general have a PR problem. While there is actually a healthy player base that every other shooter would be happy about, it is said of Warzone: The game is dead, it doesn’t get deader. And this part of the community is significantly louder.
What do hardcore players and pros wish for?
The news account @ModernWarzone on Twitter summarized in a video what “the community” wishes for Warzone 2 (via twitter.com).
While one can still agree with most demands regarding “quality of life” or “economy,” the desired gameplay adjustments are particularly tailored to hardcore players:
- Time-to-kill should be increased
- Hip fire while sliding
- Shorter aim down sights time
- Bunny hopping
- Faster animation for actions
Many players who spend more time in Call of Duty wish for a greater “skill gap.” That means, if you play longer, you should also benefit significantly from it.
In the video, Doug from ModernWarzone even claims that there is no skill gap in Warzone 2. If you put a casual player with a maximum of 10 gaming hours per week against a hardcore player with 20 to 30 hours in a lobby, you would have the counterproof. Already here, there are worlds apart.
Here are some videos from big content creators who already see Warzone 2 at the end:
Warzone is dead, long live Warzone!
Has the bad PR hurt the game? Yes. Could things have gone better at release? Definitely. Is Warzone at the end? Not even close.
Call of Duty remains one of the biggest games in the world and draws a lot of attention with every new season start. Even if much potential has remained untapped, causing players to disappear in droves – Warzone 2 is still a long way from having the servers shut down.
But this is also part of “YouTube entertainment.” Here, it is often exaggerated to make it clear that one has something important to say. They want to make a point.
If you enjoy the new Warzone, you can be sure that you can still play the Battle Royale for a long time. Even new content should be secured for the next few years.
Perhaps things will look better after the start of Season 2 – and Warzone will experience its next bloom. Here are all the details about the new Season 2.
What is your opinion on the topic? I am very interested in your opinion on the topic. Leave a comment.
