CoD devs looking to ensure ‘seamless experience’ between Warzone & premium games

Call of Duty’s engine differences between studios has come to the spotlight as Warzone takes center stage for the franchise.

When Call of Duty: Warzone first launched, it was developed by Infinity Ward and Raven Software in a partnership to become the battle royale for Modern Warfare.

With the game launching free to play, it’s taken on a life of its own in terms of success. And, Activision wants to integrate Warzone with their premium releases to provide a seamless Call of Duty experience for players.

However, the launch of Black Ops Cold War brought some challenges. Cold War is built on Treyarch’s own engine, which is different in style, look, and feel to Warzone. The integration of Cold War’s weapons was a rough period as balancing issues amongst other stood out.

Now, Activision’s President has acknowledged in a new interview with VentureBeat that this is something they are looking to avoid in the future.

He says the teams have been “very focused on that in particular.”

Kostich states that one of “the most important concepts” for their teams is “to make sure we limit any friction for our community as we go forward.“

The “as we go forward” there is key. Warzone’s success, coupled with Cold War’s development time resulted in differences in engine and game feel. But in the future, that issue should not occur, per Kostich.

“What that means behind the scenes is making sure that from a technology perspective, everything feels seamless to the player. That’s a big focus for us as we move forward, so that as you transition from one experience to the next, as new weapons come in and out of the game, it feels like a solid, continuous play experience that evolves into the future.”

Kostich states that the internal teams now are collaborating more than ever before. These features and enhancements will come “from our development teams working together to make that–as you swap in and out from Warzone or a premium experience in the future, it’s seamless for our community. It’s been another passionate point for our team, to make sure we can provide the best experience possible for our fans as we go forward.”

There are rumors already about the 2021 Call of Duty game, which is set to be developed by Sledgehammer Games. The title is rumored to be called ‘Call of Duty: WWII Vanguard.’ But the important aspect here is that the latest rumors state the game is running on Infinity Ward’s engine, which means it’s the same engine as Warzone.

If that’s the case, then there will be no friction between the experiences as players move between the two games.