The incoming shutdown of the original Call of Duty: Warzone has gotten fans angry, and understandable so. Despite creating a separate app to allow players to continue playing Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, that app will become inaccessible in a few months’ time. For fans who put hundreds of hours into unlocking camos, or paid hundreds of dollars for Call of Duty: Warzone cosmetics, losing access to a battle royale title that they expected to have continued access to is devastating.
Unfortunately, if fans can consider the original Call of Duty: Warzone shutdown the start of a new pattern, then in 5 years’ time they could be in store for another fresh start - that is unless Activision changes its strategy. One way to avoid the issue would be to look at how Fortnite has continued to evolve without requiring players to download a fully new game that has them abandoning their old cosmetics. For a few reasons, Fortnite’s approach is the ideal solution for Call of Duty: Warzone going forward.
Call of Duty: Warzone Could Go The Route of Graphical Updates Like Fortnite
Part of the reason that Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 happened was that the original game became outdated from a visual and mechanical standpoint. In particular, the lack of a console FOV slider in Call of Duty: Warzone was problematic, as it meant PC players had an advantage and that many console users were uncomfortable with the look of the game. Thankfully, the Warzone 2.0 application fixed this problem, so now the console version of the game is on par with the PC one from a technical standpoint.
With this in mind, there should be no need for another Call of Duty: Warzone game, as a future next-gen application in five years’ time with some minor upgrades would be the only necessity. Still, Activision and Call of Duty’s developers will likely not want the battle royale game to look inferior to the paid titles, so occasional graphical updates could be the best way to make sure everything remains on the same level. This is something that Fortnite has done perfectly in recent years.
Players who load into Fortnite today after not playing since it first released will likely be stunned in regard to how far the game has come, both from a mechanical and visual perspective. Features like swimming, vehicles, animal riding, and weapon crafting have all appeared over the years, as each chapter of Fortnite adds something new to enjoy alongside big graphics overhauls. While Epic’s ownership and mastery of the Unreal Engine is undoubtedly a big help here, as it is able to make Fortnite look like a brand-new game whenever it starts to become even a little outdated, Call of Duty also uses its own engine.
With the exception of Treyarch titles, modern Call of Duty games make use of the latest iteration of the IW engine, which regularly gets new features as the years go on. With leaks indicating that Treyarch will also be moving over to this engine with its next game instead of sticking to its modified version of IW3, the entire Call of Duty franchise will be using the same technology, something that should help make things easier for Call of Duty: Warzone’s developers. Hopefully, this means that the battle royale title can improve alongside the paid releases, with graphical updates dropping every few years just like Fortnite.
Considering that the original Call of Duty: Warzone brought over Black Ops Cold War skins despite those outfits being made within Treyarch’s older, outdated engine, it can be assumed that any older skins can be updated to look better whenever Call of Duty: Warzone makes these hypothetical graphical updates. Fortnite has done an excellent job of making all of its cosmetics look good as the Island is improved visually, and Call of Duty: Warzone would surely need to do the same. Still, this is much better than the alternative. Instead of abandoning the current Warzone and the skins players are buying right now in a few years’ time, just like what is happening with Warzone Caldera, Activision could instead make major updates to the existing iteration of the game. This way, the battle royale title could be improved without players losing their hard-earned cosmetics yet again.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.