During the past decade, Zombies has proved to be one of Call of Duty’s most popular game modes and has featured in the majority of titles released over the past few years. However, developer Infinity Ward has confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will not feature a Zombies mode.
In an interview with PlayStation Lifestyle, Campaign Gameplay Director Jacob Minkoff discussed the differences between Treyarch’s Black Ops series, which have always included Zombies, and Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare. He revealed that the main reason that Zombies won’t be making an appearance this year is that the studio is going for a realistic approach to this year’s game. Understandably, a Zombies mode does not fit into this vision.
“Because they focus on more of the stylized, graphic novel, super-hero experience, they can have the much more ‘out there’ different types of gameplay in their games,” Minkoff stated.
“But for us, we’re trying to create an authentic, realistic feeling world. We don’t have the flexibility to do something like put zombies in the game. That would compromise the feeling of playing in a world that feels realistic and authentic and relative to today’s conflicts and things we face.”
Another reason why Zombies wouldn’t fit into Modern Warfare is due to how the game handles progression, which is linked between the game’s single-player campaign and its multiplayer campaign. For example, players can level up their weapons in either mode and use them in the other. A Zombies mode would add extra challenges in making this work and doesn’t fit into the goal of having unified progression.
“Knowing that we needed to keep it more similar across the different modes, we decided to really lean into that, and make it completely continuous.”
Infinity Ward is not known for adding Zombies into their Call of Duty games. While the studio’s Infinite Warfare did include Zombies, none of their previous Modern Warfare titles have received the mode, so this news isn’t surprising. Nonetheless, it’s nice to have confirmation for those fans who traditionally buy Call of Duty mainly for its Zombies mode.