Activision is trying something new with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - it is effectively releasing the game in batches. The campaign is already available to players who pre-ordered, with multiplayer following on the full release date of Thursday 27 October. Then, Warzone 2.0 and DMZ will be downloadable from 16 November, with Raids due to arrive later this year and throughout 2023.
It's a different approach - drip-feeding the different modes of essentially the same game in tiers. It certainly seems to have gone down well with fans, with the campaign receiving a lot of praise ahead of the main on sale date (you can read our thoughts here).
It is also something that developers on the game approve of, as it allows them to concentrate on each individual part - including any patches. And, for that reason it's something we could expect with future franchise releases too: "It's helpful for us to focus our effort onto different waves," we were told by Marc-Alexandre Boulanger-Milot, the UI/UX director at Beenox - one of the 10 studios aiding Infinity Ward on COD MWII.
"Our focus right now is to make sure the campaign is awesome and all the bug fixes are in place. Then we can get ready for the multiplayer release and then Warzone will be coming up fast. So yes, it wasn't my decision but I love the idea."
The approach also allows for Activision to take the bold decision not to release an all-new Call of Duty in 2023. The staggered Modern Warfare II release strategy will fill the gap and give the next studio - thought to be Treyarch - more time for its next outing.
"Modern Warfare II's breadth of content will speak to whatever your tastes as a player are," added Stephanie Snowden, director of communications at Inifinity Ward.
"There's something for single-player fanatics with the campaign; there's DMZ which is an entirely new objective for us; with BR (Warzone) coming back and us feeling like it's the best experience that we've ever put out with core MP; and with Raids, which we've never before, we feel like we're really pushing the envelope in terms of the offering. It's a very good time to be a Call of Duty fan."
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