After teasing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 earlier this year, Activision and Treyarch finally pulled the curtain back on the game through a livestream reveal. While players got a glimpse at Zombies and multiplayer, the livestream also confirmed a surprising omission to this year's experience as well. While rumors have been hinting at the possibility, yesterday's live stream reveal confirmed that the game is skipping an actual, dedicated single-player campaign, letting Treyarch simply focus on the competitive multiplayer experience as well as crafting a satisfying Zombie mode.

While the news may be surprising when considering the fact that single player has been a big component of the series since the beginning, co-studio head Dan Bunting revealed in an interview that not having a single player campaign was always the plan for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. For the team, the initial idea was to create a game that could be played with friends across the board. With that said, solo players will still have options such as playing Zombies mode with AI bots or taking part in single-player challenge missions.

Another major aspect of this decision was how Call of Duty players interact with these games nowadays. Data seems to indicate that most players never finish the campaign, choosing to spend most of their time online, which has turned many of the more recent games into more social experiences than anything else. According to Bunting, only 10% of the game's population over 10 years ago was invested in multiplayer, while as of just a few years ago, that number has shot up to nearly 90%. In this instance, Treyarch is going where the players are.

The added emphasis on multiplayer style experience can best be seen in the surprising addition of the new Blackout mode. Activision has previously discussed the impact that Fortnite has had on the industry, and the influence on Blackout is apparent. This new mode puts a Call of Duty twist on the traditional Battle Royale style gameplay, putting players on the biggest map ever made for the series - nearly 100 times bigger than the average size map. There's still plenty fans don't know, but Treyarch has hinted that characters will be made up from the full history of the Black Ops games, potentially serving as class types, and the mode itself will pull content from the entire series, not just Black Ops 4.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is slated to release on October 12, 2018 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Polygon