Of the game franchises out there, few can measure up to Call of Duty in terms of popularity. An absolute goliath, the annualized series regularly claims the top spot for yearly sales. As time has passed, though, there have been increasing calls for a return to form – but there's a way for the franchise to honor tradition while moving forward, and one other series has already provided a perfect template.
The Halo franchise was in a strange place in 2014. Teasers for Halo 5 had garnered a mixed reaction, and the reception to Halo 4 had created a negative stigma around 343 Industries, largely due to how much it changed the franchise. Enter Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a compilation of the core games released in November 2014. While it had technical issues at launch, it gave fans an outlet to enjoy the series' roots.
In the time since, 343 Industries has regularly updated Halo: Master Chief Collection with new content, events, and a season pass structure that should become the industry standard. It's also added two new games to the mix in the years since Master Chief Collection launched, namely Halo 3: ODST and the fan-favorite Halo: Reach. The only mainline Halo game that can't be played in the Master Chief Collection is Halo 5, which would likely balloon the install to an unreasonable size if it were added.
The Call of Duty Collection
The ways that Call of Duty would benefit from a collection similar to The Master Chief Collection are fairly obvious. There's a broad suite of classic Call of Duty games that would fit together nicely in one little package, which fans have been dying to return to. While the franchise is peppered with sub-series like Black Ops and Modern Warfare, that just means that there are more options to choose from when it comes to crafting a collection of games for fans to enjoy.
Black Ops and Modern Warfare are the clear candidates for a collection, being the two most highly regarded of the franchises on offer. The pre-reboot Modern Warfare games have less variation in them, but they're also some of the most iconic games in the franchise, offering some of its most notable characters, maps, and weapons, while also being the series that many are the most nostalgic for.
Meanwhile, Black Ops is also a popular sub-franchise, but it might not be as good of a collection to roll with. Black Ops Cold War is still the focus for Activision and Treyarch, and Black Ops 3 and newer are still relatively fresh in the minds of many. There's less for fans to be nostalgic for, even though the variation in the past and near-future timelines would offer some more variation between the games included in a supposed collection.
Captain Price's Spotlight
There's no clearer choice for an iconic Call of Duty character than Captain Price, the mustachioed hero of several Call of Duty games. He aligns nicely with the Modern Warfare games, being a central figure in each entry. While a case can also be made for Soap to take the lead, there's been a heavy emphasis on Captain Price since the Modern Warfare reboot dropped, so it makes more sense for him to be in the spotlight.
Ideally, a Captain Price collection would bundle together the original three Modern Warfare games, plus any other games that Activision or Infinity Ward might want to add later on down the line. That would give fans access to three distinct campaigns, tons of multiplayer maps, weapons, and the Spec Ops mode. Altogether, it's an impressive bundle of content, with the opportunity for more content to be added as time pressed on.
There are clear choices for new content to be added to the bundles too. Call of Duty maps have changed a lot in the time since the original Modern Warfare games released, with new icons that would be great fits for the series. For instance, Hijacked could be a wonderful addition to any of the three games. There's also the potential for Operators, new weapons, and plenty of others that could make a Call of Duty collection more popular, especially with a seasonal structure.
Warzone Might Already Be It
The question is whether or not Activision is willing to create a collection of older Call of Duty games when it can bank just as heavily on Call of Duty: Warzone. The free-to-play battle royale game has been a moneymaker for the company, rising to an incredible level of popularity since it launched. Warzone has introduced content from older games, primarily in the form of Operators.
Elsewhere, recent Call of Duty games have re-introduced classic maps to the mix, plus the occasional returning weapon. However, Modern Warfare, Warzone, and Black Ops Cold War all feel radically different to play than the older games in the series do, which muddies the waters of whether or not it really scratches the same itch as a Call of Duty collection would.
The answer is no, not really, but Activision can already bank on Warzone being a success, so long as it's able to maintain its current popularity. Over time, that popularity may fizzle out, which could open up the possibility of a collection, but it's impossible to say what it would really take for Activision to pursue it, barring some disastrous game launch that shakes public perception of the franchise.
If fans really want something like Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Call of Duty stylings, they need to be vocal about it. Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer remastered has been a much-asked-for addition since the campaign portion of the game launched, but it may benefit fans to aim for something a bit more elaborate. There are no guarantees that it will happen, but anything is possible with enough support behind it.