For all the great success that Battlefield 1 brought to EA’s flagship shooter, Battlefield 5 failed to capitalize on that momentum. As for Call of Duty, Black Ops 4 still performed considerably well and now Modern Warfare and Warzone are even better. To many this debate has been put on hold, but Battlefield has made a resurgence from a poor title before. Both series are poised for their next entries over the course of this next year of releases, meaning this debate could come back.
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Call of Duty 2020: Another Peak for the Series?
For right now, Call of Duty has had much more momentum moving into the next year than it’s ever had before. Largely in thanks to Warzone’s surprising success, as well as Modern Warfare’s praise upon release and continued success, the franchise finds itself in somewhat of a peak. But, like every year, Call of Duty will be prepping for a 2020 annual release. Rumors have been flying for 2020’s Call of Duty game from a variety of leaks detailing what to expect, with little corroboration and the lack of an official announcement from Activision. That being said, 2020’s Call of Duty will still need to follow up and top Modern Warfare in some way.
As for what to expect from 2020’s Call of Duty, there’s a relatively common theme between most rumors. Call of Duty 2020 will likely be an entry in the Black Ops sub-series, the most popular form of a modern Call of Duty game out there. Building off of that, many rumors state the next entry will return to the Cold War or Vietnam in some way. Following in line of Modern Warfare’s soft reboot, 2020’s Call of Duty could be doing something similar. Campaign will likely return as well, despite the fact that Black Ops 4 eschewed the single-player mode to make way for the highly popular Blackout battle royale. Obviously, multiplayer will make a similar return as well.
Battlefield 6: Getting Out of the Slump
On the other hand, Battlefield has been in a bit of a slump with the lackluster release of Battlefield 5. Unfortunately the game simply suffered under its own ambition in a lot of ways. Whether it was under-delivering with its expansion schedule or over-promising with its Firestorm battle royale, Battlefield 5 puts the series in a tough bind. It’s very possible that the next Battlefield entry will need to return to the drawing board. That being said, Battlefield 6 is in development for PS5/Xbox Series X, so DICE is still mounting a comeback for the series.
Even though Call of Duty seems to get a plethora of rumors and leaks for its next release, Battlefield is definitely more tightly sealed when it comes to leaks and rumors. There’s practically no information out there about the game, but that’s got more to do with development not being as far long as 2020’s Call of Duty title. Many theories state that Battlefield 6 would be returning to a modern setting, which makes a lot of sense. Battlefield 3/4 as well as the Bad Company games saw plenty of success simulating modern military combat. Thought the setting isn’t exactly what’s going to save the franchise, it’s got more to do with development priority being misplaced.
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CoD vs. Battlefield: Reigniting the Discussion
For Battlefield to reignite the “who’s better” arguments from its past, the franchise will need to seriously focus on what used to be the game’s signature identity. Destructible environments have been a staple in Battlefield thanks to the graphically impressive physics in the Frostbite engine. It’s never been taken out of the game per se, but with each new release the destruction has been taken out of the spotlight. Destruction was huge for Bad Company and Bad Company 2 because it was both free-flowing and integral to the map design. Battlefield 3 introduced “Levolution” to try and mix up the mechanic, but in turn made destruction much more linear and predictable. Reinventing a more unpredictable destruction system would be the perfect way to bring back classic Battlefield in a brand new form.
Call of Duty, despite being relatively on top of its game in the past year, will need to determine how it’s going to shake things up for its annual release. Modern Warfare added a lot of different changes that made the game very similar to Battlefield, especially with the revamp of the Ground War multiplayer mode. But Call of Duty could run into an issue if Battlefield is able to follow up with its own core modes that ends up being a better version of Ground War. Black Ops 4 introduced Blackout as its standout mode to great acclaim, but with Warzone out and continually boasting huge player numbers, 2020’s Call of Duty wouldn’t want to compete with that. This year’s Call of Duty will need to figure out what its core difference will be this year, and Zombies can only carry Treyarch so far.
Once Battlefield is back on the map again and Call of Duty doesn’t lose steam, that once ubiquitous debate could make its return. Call of Duty will need to find another way to reinvent the wheel like its done countless times before. Assuming these two fall in line and each game sees its own unique success, fans will be happy to engage in this discussion again.
Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty 2020 are in development.
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