No matter how some gamers may feel about the Call of Duty franchise, it’s hard to deny that the series delivers from a sales perspective year in and year out. And this year should be no different, perhaps even more so thanks to the addition of a battle royale mode called Blackout.

Speaking about Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and its upcoming new mode, Chief Operating Officer Coddy Johnson says that Activision is seeing “tremendous interest” in Blackout. The publisher believes that it has something special on its hands, as evidenced by feedback from both internal playtests and those with outside organizations.

“We’ve also seen a tremendous interest in the new Blackout mode. We teased earlier this week and we saw overwhelmingly positive response to the trailer we put out. I think the fans are really hungry for it. And we see it also on the playtest that we’re doing, both with our own teams and the confidential tests that we bring consumers through. There is this moment-to-moment creation that happens now. Many Call of Duty games in the past were scripted, but in this the players are generating the wild helicopter rides, the takedowns from ATVs and truck beds, the powers and abilities that you find as you move through the map… It’s putting in the hands of the fans this massive experience.”

Johnson and Activision believe that Blackout will be so successful because the mode creates its own narrative. Battle royale modes give players new experiences each time, and with some classic Call of Duty twists that should be true for Blackout as well. Johnson specifically called out vehicles in his quote, which is likely one element that will make Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode stand out.

There’s no doubt that the battle royale mode is Black Ops 4’s most intriguing element, but players also haven’t seen much of it. As Johnson mentions, there was a brief teaser of the mode in this week’s trailer, but that’s about all the gameplay that players have seen since the Black Ops 4 reveal in May.

At this point, there is more speculation surrounding Blackout than there is fact. Player count has yet to be confirmed, but most of the rumors claim that it will be less than the usual 100. Key locations have been teased, but nothing concrete has been seen. And then there was a brief, fuzzy shot of zombies, which suggested that the undead might either be playable in the mode or factor into the gameplay somehow.

That’s all to say, Activision knows interest is high but is avoiding showing anything. Luckily, there will reportedly be a beta test for Blackout, where hopeful Black Ops 4 owners will be able to see what Treyarch’s interpretation of battle royale brings to the table.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 releases October 12, 2018 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Dual Shockers