Public perception of the Call of Duty franchise is currently incredibly negative. Technical issues, frustration with creative decisions, and rampant cheating despite a recent major anti-cheat effort have led to pushback from Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and other Call of Duty communities. It's clear that the negative feedback is starting to reach upper levels of Activision, as a public statement has now been issued regarding the frustrating status quo of Call of Duty games.A message labeled from the broad "Call of Duty" brand was shared on Twitter recently, tagging the development teams at Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch. The message is directed toward players of Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It focuses on the message that each game's developer is listening and hears player frustrations. Further, these teams are "hard at work addressing the issues."Two follow-up tweets specifically focus on work being done for Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard. The Call of Duty: Warzone tweet first points out recent fixes implemented. These include updates to fix collision problems that allows players to exploit certain terrain, as well as balance updates for the Akimbi Double Barrel Shotgun kit. Issues that continue to be worked on include console performance, skins turning invisible, and in-game Buy Stations causing freezes.
The Call of Duty: Vanguard tweet follows the same structure. Two updates are mentioned. First, bug fixes to improve multiplayer stability, camo and weapon challenge tracking, and spawn logic are noted. As for ongoing issues being worked on, the tweet mentions several categories. Weapons and equipment, killstreaks, perks, modes, matchmaking, and Zombies all have their own respective improvements and changes being investigated and worked on.
For the most part, Call of Duty fans in the responses to these tweets are hopeful for positive change in the future. Call of Duty players, who are historically very loyal, just want their favorite games to be improved. Additionally, any indication of improved communication from the development teams is welcomed, given the lack of response to feedback in the past.
However, there's good reason for Call of Duty players to be unpersuaded. Call of Duty workers remain on strike and, despite their efforts, have received no communication from Activision leadership regarding past broken promises. It seems disingenuous to promise improvements while failing to address the concerns of developers necessary to implement those improvements. Additionally, past accusations of sexual harassment against Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, despite a company-wide zero-tolerance policy, also remain unaddressed. Actions often speak louder than words, and on key fronts, Call of Duty seems inactive.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.