Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare Remaster is coming later this year and as many know it’ll be bundled together with the new Call of Duty Infinite Warfare release. Following the release it goes without saying that all eyes in the eSports world will be firmly on promoting the new game. But with such a classic coming back to our consoles, is there any chance that we could see a breakaway league formed specifically to attract fans of the CoD classic?
It’s a question we’ve been wondering for some time, but as we found out speaking to developers, CoD pros and sportscasters that the answer is not quite as simple as we originally thought.
Interestingly with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 now Backwards Compatible on the Xbox One – and a sudden surge of players returning to the game – there’s clearly still a hunger from fans to return to these classic releases before everything became so focussed with jetpacks and wall-running.
“I think it’s possible,” explains Treyarch’s Director of Brand Development Jay Puryear. “Obviously as developers we’re always going to be focussing on the mainline title, but maybe it’s something we can look at down the line for the World League.
“The issue we could face though is how we manage it. If we have 2,3 maybe 4 different games being supported and it could get very complicated and convoluted.”
Professional Call of Duty Sportscaster Alan Brice also highlights another key obstacle which could prevent Modern Warfare from entering the eSports arena nine years on from its initial release.
“Back in the day, we had this problem that the EU and North American teams were divided over the game,” Bryce tells us. “Both regions had different rules for the game and in my opinion the North American rules were terrible.”
Despite the issues surrounding the games rules, Brice certainly believes there’s room for it in some shape or form as he points to an immediate groundswell of interest in the game.
“Right now we don’t even know if Infinity Ward’s planning a spectator mode for the game. What I do know is that it’s the game where I started. It’s where a lot of Pro’s started out.
“I know theres one event already happening, not officially, but it’s happeneding. i know because I’m going host it in a lan centre in my home town. it won’t be big but people clearly want it.
“Personally I’d love to see a dual league, or at the least some CoD 4 exhibition shows, but despite how popular it could prove, realistically I don’t think it could ever be the main event.”
Call of Duty Pro Callum Swan, or ‘Swanny’ as he’s better known, told us he still has fond memories playing the game, but doesn’t expect to see Modern Warfare in eSports circles anytime soon.
“I won my first competitive title playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare,” Swanny explains. “it’s where this life of mine all began and I think it’s a great decision to bring it back – but purely from a nostalgic prospective.
“I don’t think anyone on the competitive circuit expects to see it in the World League any time soon and certainly not to take priority over Infinite Warfare.
“Activision and the developers are increasingly acknowledging the role of eSports as a marketing tool for their games and it wouldn’t make sense to revert back to it.”
via Daily Star