Ever since it was unlocked as an endgame bonus after completing Treyarch’s own Call of Duty: World at War, the popularity and demand for the series’ Zombies Mode has grown exponentially, to the point where fans have wondered why it hasn’t broken off into its own franchise. Now, on the eve of Call of Duty: Black Ops III‘s launch, the studio has touched base with that exact proposition.
In an interview with Eurogamer, the franchise’s campaign and Zombies mode director Jason Blundell levelled on the reason why Zombies Mode remains embedded in the Call of Duty experience. With such a huge instal base – one of the biggest of any video game series – each iteration has to appeal to as broad an audience has possible, and this catering to all needs approach has effectively put paid to any idea of the popular survival mode breaking off and forming its own sub-franchise.
“Sometimes you want to watch a movie and want to be engaged narratively on a concept,” he said. “And then we have multiplayer–sometimes you just want to run around and have that high-engagement experience. And sometimes you want to kill the undead–sometimes you want to play Zombies. We see by the numbers and how people engage with the game as a whole, people change that feeling. They’ll move between the different modes.”
It’s understandable that Activison and Treyarch aren’t keen on fragmenting the Call of Duty experience; particularly now, what with the series as a whole beginning to display the onset of franchise fatigue.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III will launch across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on November 7. To learn more about the threequel’s Zombies Mode, you can feast your eyes on the detailed video that the studio put out earlier in the week.
