Activision and Sledgehammer Games are looking to further enhance the competitive potential of Call of Duty, with this year’s entry confirmed to have both Ranked Play and Game Battles.
Call of Duty: WWII, the first entry in the series to be set during World War II since 2008’s World at War, may offer the best Call of Duty competitive scene, with many a shining light setting an example in the FPS field, namely Overwatch and its Competitive Play component. Blizzard’s juggernaut allows player to grind through tiers, with Top 500 players often given the chance to go pro.
Unfortunately, Call of Duty games have typically fallen short in this regard, with 2012’s Black Ops II offering perhaps the best competitive ranked play in franchise history with League Play. Every equivalent since, however, has not be anywhere near as well structured or competitive, allowing other franchises to leap frog Call of Duty in the competitive scene.
Sledgehammer’s entry could be different, and it would certainly be silly for the company to avoid taking advantage of increased interest in competitive play.
Sledgehammer Games co-founder, Michael Condrey, has been vocal about Call of Duty: WWII‘s Ranked Play, taking to Reddit to confirm the addition in this year’s entry.
“As you may have heard, we had a great week with some of the top competitors at SHG playing the game and giving us feedback,” he said. “Ranked Play and Game Battles are important components of our feature set. We’ll have a lot more news about the competitive scene coming later this summer.”
It would be a considerable climb back to relevance for Call of Duty, which has strangely fallen by the wayside in the competitive stakes. While Blizzard struggles to get the Overwatch League going amidst rumours of investor backlash, its parent company in Activision Blizzard must surely be hoping that Sledgehammer can bring the Call of Duty franchise back to the top of the FPS mantle.
A competitive ranked mode would certainly help it reach those heights. The re-release of Modern Warfare, now available as a standalone game, shows that there’s intense interest in the more refined and structured competitive entries, dating back as far as ten years.
Ranked Play in Call of Duty: WWII would certainly make the game that little bit more appealing for players looking for a more rewarding and engaging competitive element.
