Call of Duty arrives in China as a free-to-play game

[Shawn Knight]

The Call of Duty franchise has earned numerous accolades over the years but the one thing the popular first-person shooter has never accomplished can now be checked off the list as a version of the game has launched in China.

A free-to-play version called Call of Duty Online debuted in China this week as part of a partnership with Chinese Internet provider Tencent. Developed by Raven Software, the game was inspired by both the Modern Warfare and Black Ops universes and was built specifically for the Chinese market.

The title, as the name suggests, focuses on the multiplayer aspect which has arguably been the series’ bread and butter over the last several years although it’s not the only game type offered. Gamers can also tackle a single-player mode known as Hero Ops as well as a co-op Survival mode and a new mode called Cyborgs.

The latter replaces the game’s traditional zombie mode with Cyborgs in an effort to keep in line with China’s strict censorship rules as it relates to depictions of the undead.

As is typical with the free-to-play model, microtransactions will be a big part of the game as players will have the opportunity to use real-world money to buy or rent in-game items.

According to Activision publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, it’ll be a game-changer in the Chinese market.

Call of Duty Online has only been announced for the PC thus far. No word yet on whether or not it’ll debut at some point later for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59387-call-duty-china-free-play-game.html

 

[Adhmuz]

Nice they brought back Wet Work from the original Modern Warfare, good times were had playing with a silenced P90 and radar jammers, probably the last time I enjoyed a CoD game, not likely ever to happen again. Most likely this game is just a compilation of the old games, reused maps, textures, perks, actually this is what CoD has been for a coupe years too many, so I suppose this is a "new" game by previously set standards. It would be unfortunate if I cared, but likely if the micro-transaction system works here it will be carried over to future releases in the rest of the world, hopefully allowing the franchise to go away finally.