While developer Treyarch decided to create a battle royale mode for last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Infinity Ward, the developers behind the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, seem to have other ideas for their upcoming first-person shooter.
Before the full multiplayer reveal back on August 1, it was heavily rumored that there would be a battle royale mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but during a recent interview with IGN, Joe Cecot, who is the multiplayer director at Infinity Ward, said that, as of right now, their main focus is on the game’s core multiplayer modes. In short, there won’t be a battle royale mode coming to CoD: MW anytime soon.
“We’re excited for large player counts and things like that, but right now we’re really focused on core multiplayer.”
While the game likely won’t feature a battle royale mode, it will have a 100-player mode called Ground War. Of course, this mode is nothing new in the Call of Duty series, but it’s never been able to host a 100-player match in the past. It’s also worth noting that this will be a 50v50 team-based mode, not a 100-player free-for-all.
Infinity Ward is planning on releasing a free-to-play beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare this coming September, and as of this writing, it’s unclear whether or not it’ll feature the Ground War mode, but it would make a ton of sense for it to be included in the beta given the fact that this is something completely new for the developer.
Also during his chat with IGN, Cecot said that Infinity Ward is focused on providing a gritty and authentic experience for fans in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. On top of that, IW’s multiplayer director claimed that the weapons and attachments in CoD: MW will be realistic because it’s all about “pulling back to Modern Warfare and keeping that pure.”
Aside from the 100-player, 50v50 experience, the Ground War mode also offers a 20v20 and a 40v40 team-based mode if you’re looking for a less-populated game. Of course, 20v20 has pretty much been the standard for CoD’s Ground War mode in the past.
We’re now a little over two months away from the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, as the game is currently scheduled to hit the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25. If you’re looking to jump into the MW multiplayer early, then the aforementioned open beta kicks off on September 12.
