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A New Era of Call of Duty Is Coming: CoD 2.0 Explained


Subscription-Based Model in Call of Duty 5
Credit: Activision

Activision has referenced a Call of Duty 2.0 era coming to the franchise soon, signaling a shift in how the Call of Duty games are made, marketed, and supported. There are only a few vague official details, but reading between the lines isn't too hard when it comes to one of the biggest gaming franchises ever. So, in this article, we'll explain how a new era of Call of Duty is coming: CoD 2.0.

Subscription-Based Model in Call of Duty

Subscription-Based Model in Call of Dut
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Credit: Activision

One of the hallmarks of the new Call of Duty 2.0 model is a subscription-based program. We don't know, officially, what the details are here, but the idea, in general, has been pretty thoroughly leaked and rumored.

In short, a yearly subscription where you get the latest Call of Duty alongside a battle pass or a series of battle passes will likely be the new Call of Duty subscription. Just plonk down a yearly fee of, maybe, $120 or so and enjoy each new CoD alongside all the live service content you could want throughout the year.

Related: Ex PlayStation Boss Says No Call of Duty Xbox Exclusivity, But He's Wrong

It's not a radical invention, but it'll likely save gamers a few dollars and make getting the latest CoD, if that's your thing, even easier than it was before. Outside of this option, don't really expect the existence of such a subscription to radically change the Call of Duty landscape.

More Events and Seasonal Content

Subscription-Based Model in Call of Dut 2
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Credit: Activision

In Call of Duty now, there are regular events, limited-time modes, and fresh content, but these usually get added into the game at the beginning of a season or during a mid-season reload, so it's a maybe once every month or two thing at most.

Some events are cooler than others, but these events aren't really at the level of Fortnite or anything like that, and they don't happen all that often either. Events and limited-time modes, seasonal updates, that kind of thing, are likely to increase with Call of Duty games going forward as Activision tries to make the games feel more like true live services.

Related: Why Call of Duty: Vanguard Failed: Vanguard's Low Sales and Poor Performance Explained

This could mean that Call of Duty games in general, going forward, will be supported more robustly. Perhaps CoD games will get active battle passes with rewards for each specific game even if it's a year or two after the game's released. Maybe there is to be more cross-game gameplay opportunities where you can earn rewards for doing stuff across games.

Stronger Connection With Devs

Subscription-Based Model in Call of Dut 3
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Credit: Activision

The last few Call of Duty games haven't been great in terms of devs listening to fans, but they have been getting better, and CoD 2.0 is likely to signal a shift to even more open communication between developers and actual gamers.

In Modern Warfare (2019), many complaints fans had were never addressed, and throughout the game's life cycle, strange things would happen like popular playlists and modes getting replaced with less popular options. In Cold War, months could go by with a broken meta before the game was patched. In Vanguard, while Sledgehammer tends to listen to the community, they're very slow to respond and unwilling to make serious changes.

Related: Top Changes Fans Want in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

If Call of Duty is aiming at being a more player-driven series with feedback from gamers and input from fans more regularly taken into account, we can expect more regular updates, fan-requested changes, that kind of thing, to happen more often, which seems to be happening slowly.

New Monetization Strategy

Subscription-Based Model in Call of Dut 4
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Credit: Activision

In general, Call of Duty 2.0 seems to be heralding a shift in the way Call of Duty is monetized. For the past few years, Call of Duty, beyond the entry price, has been trying to get gamers to buy battle passes and, more importantly, buy cosmetics from the in-game shop.

To this end, SBMM exists to pair players with people who've made purchases, and the game will always try to make sure you're not losing too many games to make sure you won't feel discouraged enough to not make a purchase.

Related: SBMM Will Change in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

Then, there are huge pop culture tie-ins where Activision tries to play on love for other media to incentivize you to buy a cosmetic weapon bundle from the shop. This extends to major events and updates in games, too, all kind of surrounding an attempt at selling you stuff.

Call of Duty, with CoD 2.0, is moving away from pushing cosmetic microtransactions and more towards getting people to keep buying battle passes and stay subscribed to Call of Duty as a live service. Especially in the context of Microsoft buying Activision, less of a focus on selling microtransactions is what's coming.

This makes sense as publishers realize that they can't well create more whales to sell microtransactions to, and as microtransactions in general are disliked more and more by gamers, moving towards a subscription model that gamers are generally much more open to makes a lot of sense. Plus, it's not like Activision is going to ever remove the in-game shop.

Related: Treyarch's Free-to-Play Call of Duty 2023 Could Be an Esports Valorant/CS:GO Competitor

Changes like those described above make sense in the context of the rumor that SBMM is to be overhauled in the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022), which would well remove the components of matchmaking that focus on getting people to buy microtransactions or keeping people playing long enough to buy something.

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