It seems pretty predictable at this point that whenever a new video game genre receives a ton of praise and attention, the copycats soon come running. It happened with MOBAs and its happening with battle royale games. PUBG made the battle royale genre more popular than ever, and then ever since games like Fortnite, Island of Nyne, and even recently released Radical Heights have all tried to cash in. But still, games like Fortnite and League of Legends should remind you that sometimes copycats aren’t always a bad thing, a fact that Call of Duty Black Ops 4 developers are banking on.

That’s right you heard me correctly, Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is slated to have a battle royale mode. Call of Duty has sparked up a frenzy of reactions after news released that the upcoming game in the series would be a multiplayer-only experience, opting to cut out a full-length campaign to instead focus on creating a full battle royale game mode. There are certainly plenty of pros and cons to this decision. On the one hand, it could be just the kind of change that makes Call of Duty exciting again. For a while now the Call of Duty series has been a lot like Madden or any long-lasting sports series. A new game comes out every year with a few cosmetics changes and gameplay tweaks, but the core experience remains the same. By introducing a battle royale mode, Call of Duty might actually be able to succeed in bringing casual gamers back to the franchise.

However, on the other hand, the Call of Duty development team taking on battle royale style gameplay is a huge risk. First of all, aside from PUBG having a first-person mode, all battle royale games pretty much function in third person which means Call of Duty devs either need to drastically change the way their games are played, or equally struggle in trying to make a first- person battle royale game that appeals to more than just the diehard competitive gamers. It honestly feels like a decision that could make or break the series depending on its success or failure, but until more details and videos emerge all we can do is wait and see.