Supposedly queue times have become pretty long lately. I watched shroud for a bit a little bit after the recent map update and it seemed he was waiting in the lobby for ages. Which was already a problem in the game in solos because it wouldn't start a 30 second match start countdown until 99 players were in the game.
I think these free to play bouts are clear indication that Blackout is set to eventually go free to play so it can co-exist with future COD games and not be buried by being tied to Black ops 4. I honestly think this has always been the plan.
I think Apex has deflated a lot of its competitors. Blackout for sure and I expect it's done zero favors for Firestorm as well. We're also seeing people like Ninja jumping over to Apex angry at new Fortnite updates that lower the skill gap.
That's exactly what MW4 is going to be. Full campaign and classic mp with no specialists. They confirmed no BR mode but that's likely because Blackout is going free to play and will be its own thing from now on with continued development.
I mean it's by far the worst BR out there with or without Apex
Ark is a surprise. I put a lot of time into it when it launched as well.
What makes you say that?
PUBG on console is absolutely the worst one. Plays, looks, runs awful. Aiming and shooting feels bad. There's nothing redeeming about it whatsoever.
That's just for PC, which COD never has a lasting community for whatever reason. I heard this was the most-popular COD on PC in years, but that has become a low bar to overcome.
My prediction is that around the time of the COD 2019 release, they will have a standalone F2P version of Blackout. The smart move would be to give all the people who bought BO4 free battle passes (aka how it is now), but charge for the F2P audience.
Someone hasn't played H1Z1 (or whatever it's called this month), or Realm Royale.
If it falls, it's gonna be due to stuff like what is going on now, where you are continuously making large changes to the meta/gameplay and pissing off large parts of your audience. There's plenty of alternate BR options so people don't have to sit there and take it.
No advanced movement. This is back to Modern Warfare's world and is a followup to MW3. (Thank goodness)
As far as twitch popularity goes (which reflects trends to a degree), Apex has also deflated a bit compared to launch. For example, Fortnite has been consistently No1 even after the "casual friendly" update which led to streamers complaining (streamers always complain and always come back to where the money is). I just think that the BR market is reaching saturation and definitely can't support a non-free game. Fortnite has the cool factor, PUBG has the Asian/mobile market and Apex has the middle ground. There is no room for Blackout and there is definitely no room for Firestorm.
I agree with you. Price is a barrier to entry that you just can't get around if you want to be big in the BR space. I think the gas that fuels Blackout comes from the massive console fan base. COD has never been big on PC so it's expected to falter there first.
Unfortunately, mobile is the only platform where Activision can provide Blackout for free. If Blackout was free on consoles, it would definitely severely cannibalise mainline sales, especially when there is no single player component. The mobile market on the other hand, is well isolated from consoles.
