Activision Blizzard recently said that its hottest game "Call of Duty" series has long ceased to be the so-called "New Year goods", but part of the "always-on" model.
When the official Twitter announced that all of its QA testers would be converted to full-time employees, Activision Blizzard's accompanying statement added an emphasis on this point: "Call of Duty has expanded and grown over the past two years. Our development cycle has gone from 'release every year' to 'always-on' mode. In response to greater engagement, we have added our online services business across all platforms. ”
This paradigm shift has been driven by season pass content, a large number of add-ons available in the in-game store, and more. While the release of Call of Duty was once seen as an annual "New Year", with the launch of Warzone, it has largely transformed into an IP that never stops outputting content.
The statement went on to note that Call of Duty has "ambitious plans" for the future, including an "exciting" mobile version. As a result, the team expects workloads to continue to fluctuate, and in these cases, the team will also add additional support from internal partners.
On the "always-on" side, the recent Activision Blizzard worklist also mentions Call of Duty 2.0, which mentions subscription-based content and "always-on community and player connections." The working language is vaguely interpreted, perhaps deliberately, but it does fit the line listed by Activision Blizzard in its letter to employees.
"2022 is a great opportunity for Call of Duty, with a range of extraordinary innovations in featured player experiences, multi-platform gameplay, subscription-based content, mobile game development, and always-on community and player connectivity," the worklist reads. We call it Call of Duty 2.0. ”
Not much information has been leaked about call of Duty's new vision of being "always on," but it's clear that many changes may be underway.