The popular last-one-standing format that gave rise to "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," "Fortnite," "Axe.io" and more is being incorporated into "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4." The action game franchise's traditional rival, "Battlefield," revealed a little more about its own variation on the theme on September 4, a 64-player, 16-team Firestorm mode which will be added to "Battlefield V" at some point after its November 20 launch.
"Call of Duty" followed suit thanks to a Game Informer interview published not long after, having debuted a Blackout concept trailer back in May and including it in a more general multiplayer beta trailer in July. Unlike Firestorm, the Blackout mode being introduced through October's "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" will be available at launch as well as through a dedicated multiplayer beta beginning from September 10.
It mixes new elements with aspects of established "Call of Duty" multiplayer maps. Participation in the beta test is being offered to pre-order customers. Those on PlayStation 4 can get going on September 10, with the testing phase extending to Xbox One and Windows PC from September 14. "We're starting with 80 players," the game's co-studio head Dan Bunting told Game Informer, noting that internal testing had involved up to 100 players, the Battle Royale standard.
"More important to us than a number is that the gameplay experience is as refined as it can be," Bunting reasoned, prioritizing "the ideal perfect format" rather than a higher player count. "We're going to actively be participating in the community and taking feedback, making changes and adapting, evolving the game as feedback rolls in."
"So there's a lot that can go on that can happen beyond that first impact of the game going out there." Both "Fortnite" and its forerunner "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" have cemented 100-person rounds as a genre standard, though the format's current hot title, PC early access game "SCUM," prefers a 64-person headcount though without the predefined squads of "Battlefield V."
Similarly, Android and iOS competitor "Axe.io" runs with 50-person matches, while mobile and PC game "Rules of Survival" caters for up to 300 players, depending on the map. Blackout arrives through "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" on October 12 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.
That places it one week after action adventure "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" and a fortnight before the very highly anticipated Western "Red Dead Redemption 2." "Battlefield V" has been moved away from its scheduled October 19 date to November 20 instead, a week after single-player stealth challenge "Hitman 2" and co-operative survival sim "Fallout 76."
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