Call of Duty fans may be in for a surprise with the franchises plans for 2020, as a report claims that Treyarch may be making an early return with Black Ops 5
The report from Kotaku, claims that Treyarch have now taken over the Call of Duty 2020 release, after Activision informed developers that Raven and Sledgehammer studios were no longer in charge.
Due to the late change, Raven and Sledgehammer studios will now also act as supporting studios to Treyarch for the 2020 release where needed.
It is reported that Treyarch Studios will be working on a continuation of the fan favorite Black Ops series, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 5.
Campaign mode returning to Black Ops 5
The latest installment of the Black ops series, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, decided to go against the grain from usual Call of Duty game by removing campaign mode completely and replacing it with a new battle royale game mode, Blackout for fans to experience.
It appears as if they will be reverting back to old ways, however, as Treyarch studios are likely to incorporate some of Raven and Sledgehammer’s original work for the single-player mode and transform it into their own Black Ops campaign.
Raven and Sledgehammer were originally developing a Call of Duty campaign which was set to take place during the Cold War, and the sources claim that this setting will continue to be used for the campaign.
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Will be Black Ops 5 be Free to Play?
Despite seeing massive success in the early stages of the Black Ops 4 release, it was reported that Activision’s overall revenue figures throughout the game’s life cycle were not quite what they expected them to be.
Activision executives have now started to consider embracing and potentially implementing a free to play revenue model for future Call of Duty titles, and are likely to offer some free to play component as soon as the next Modern Warfare 4, according to Kotaku.
Call of Duty have previously tested making their games free to play in the past, such as hosting free weeks and even months for their battle royale mode Blackout, allowing everyone to play the game mode without purchasing it.
Will Call of Duty 2020 be available on Next Gen?
With the next generation of consoles expected in 2020, the Kotaku report also stated that Black Ops 5 will be ‘cross-gen’ – available both on current and next-gen systems.
It is quite likely that the 2020 installment of the Call of Duty franchise will be one of the first games to be available for the PlayStation 5, which is expected to be released at a similar time to Call of Duty’s usual release date, near November 2020.
This means the possibilities for Treyarch alongside Raven and Sledgehammer to push the boundaries with expected power of the PS5’s hardware could deliver us the most visually stunning Call of Duty game we have seen yet.