Activision has finally released their own Battle Royale project after years of PUBG and Fortnite domination. It is actually rather hard to get the player base from other games in the same genre to play your game – you have to offer them something new or revolutionary. To Call of Duty: Warzone’s developers, that thing is “player count”.
Warzone debuted on almost all systems as a free game, with the biggest map out of all Battle Royale a 150 players limit per match. Apparently, their original plan was a 200 player cap for each match, but due to the fact that it is an unprecedented number, they are currently testing matches inhouse. It is good that they are approaching this carefully, as a disastrous launch would be the fastest way to get players to move away from your game.
Player count is very important in battle royale games. With the size of the map unchanged, a player count modification would dramatically redefine the game. For example, if PUBG has 200 players per match in Erangel, the amount of fighting you would have to do would be ludicrous, along with the scarcity of resources.
With the bigger player count, various new team format can also be tested – instead of the 3 players per team they are doing currently, players can create a squad of 4 or 5, further increase the tactical depth of the game. You might think the team nature of the game would reduce player interaction, with people having to wait until the game end if they are dead. However, Call of Duty Warzone managed to subvert everyone’s expectation with the Gulag mode, which pits dead players together in a 1vs1 fight. The winner of the duel would get resurrected.
Overall, Call of Duty Warzone is an excellent free game - and if your rig can handle the game, you should definitely download and play it. For more information about how to download Warzone, please check out this post.