Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Vanguard, the latest installment in the franchise, is failing to hold fans’ attention. A report from late April suggested that Call of Duty had lost around 50 million active players in both Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone over the course of a year.
This has caused many to focus on a possible return to the classic formula with the next Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2and a new leak seems to suggest that it will fix many of the mistakes made in recent Call of Duty titles.
The leak suggests that the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and the new Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will include a change to the highly controversial skill-based matchmaking system, used in recent Call of Duty games. The system was initially implemented to level the playing field for all participants, so that less skilled players were matched with similar experience levels, while high-skilled players were paired with others of their level.
Unfortunately, the skill based matchmaking It usually doesn’t have the desired effect. Most fans find that playing in lobbies with opponents of the same skill level makes any match grueling, with everyone having to do their best to have any chance of victory.
In essence, this has turned multiplayer from Call of Dutyoften casual, into something much more serious, and while even professional Call of Duty players are urging developers to level things up, the issue has yet to be resolved.
The leak highlights some big changes that could improve the system, one of which is the addition of bots. While this inclusion is likely to infuriate more skilled players, it seems the AI opponents are geared towards lower skill level players.
However, it is not certain that the bots will be implemented in standard multiplayer, as the leak only references Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s DMZ mode, about which little is known. Also, some players suspect that bots have already been added to the current Call of Duty: Warzone, which makes this leak more credible.