After a two-week hiatus, Call of Duty YouTuber JGOD returned to address the current state of Warzone as its player count continues to drop, saying he believes Activision knew it was going to happen.
Black Ops 6’s integration into Warzone brought new weapons, perks, field upgrades, and weapon balances for older Call of Duty guns, and many hoped it would revitalize the game.
However, the usual problems of cheaters, matchmaking, and monetization have resulted in many players abandoning Warzone altogether.
In his latest video, JGOD claims that Activision knew that Warzone Season 1 wasn’t going to be popular, so cut down on marketing the Black Ops 6 integration to prepare for the return of Verdansk instead.
Call of Duty is relying on Verdansk to save Warzone, JGOD says
JGOD talks about issues Warzone players are facing like cheaters and the rumored ‘engagement optimized matchmaking’ (which Activision has never confirmed to be used in CoD). He argues that as these complaints pile up, it only takes one small bug or another piece of monetization to be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” and cause someone to quit.
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At the 8-minute mark of the video, JGOD says “I feel like they knew they were going to have these issues because they released it early instead of postponing it.” The YouTuber then says this is because “there was basically zero marketing.
“Almost every integration we’ve had some kind of hype beast moments leading up to the integration… this one it felt a little bit lackluster, they didn’t give us the date early, there was no buildup, so I think they didn’t really care about launching it.”
As for why he thinks Activision chose to give the integration little recognition, JGOD says “They’re going to put all their eggs in one basket when it comes to Verdansk”, and speculates that the original Warzone map will return around March 10, which is the 5th anniversary of Warzone.
Whether Verdansk returning will improve the game’s player count is yet to be seen, but CoD devs need to address the bigger problems like shadow banning innocent players if they want to make fans happy.
