New ‘Call of Duty’ bets on Latin America to surpass its predecessor

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Scheduled for release next Friday (28), “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” has the difficult mission to surpass its predecessor. Launched in 2019, the reboot “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” is currently the most successful game in Activision’s traditional FPS (first-person shooter) franchise, having grossed over US$1 billion. 16 billion) and sold over 30 million copies in one year.

To achieve this feat, the sequel bets on punctual changes to the gameplay (so as not to alienate fans of the initial title) and on a new scenario: Latin America. Much of the “COD: MW2” campaign takes place in Mexico, where the series’ team of elite soldiers team up with Colonel Alejandro Vargas of the Mexican Special Forces to fight a drug cartel that has linked up with a terrorist group.

The series, however, has a history of controversy with countries represented in its games. This was the case with the 2019 title, accused of “Russophobia” for the way it represented the Russian army, even leading Sony to decide not to sell the PlayStation version of the game in its virtual store in that country.

A problem that Mexican Rodrigo Perez, the franchise’s senior manager for Latin America, believes will not be repeated this year. “We have employees at the studio who work in Mexico. They had a lot of discussions and care about how to represent the country,” he said in an interview with Sheet.

“We have very high expectations for Latin America. We know that the community is very demanding, especially users in Brazil. We are going to do a lot of things that we have never done in the franchise with the region and we are very excited for you to see everything soon.”

The 2019 reboot of “COD: Modern Warfare” was a huge success. What is the expectation for this sequel? Of course they are even bigger. “Modern Warfare” is a franchise that since 2007, when the first game was released, has changed the way FPSs were seen. It changed the stature of these games in the industry. Doing a reboot was risky. We know that this is one of the most loved franchises by fans, who have been playing “COD” for many years, but we also believe that it is good to take a chance.

The reboot, despite taking back the original characters, tells another story. The fictional conflicts of the world of “COD” have changed, and in the last two or three years, the franchise has changed as well. We released “Warzone” a few months after “COD: MW” and the franchise now has another stature, another way to bring that content to the community. We love the way the community has embraced the new way of playing “COD”. So the expectation is now very high.

The goal, first and foremost, is to deliver something that fans have been waiting for. We know that “Modern Warfare” is not just any game in the industry. We want the improvements and small tweaks and changes that we make to make the game look new to people, and with that… Well, success is a consequence.

The market has been changing and today we have very popular free FPSs, including “COD: Warzone”. Do you think this could diminish the success of “Modern Warfare 2”? What more does the title give the consumer to make the purchase worthwhile? We’ve taken great care to make “Modern Warfare 2” a complete product. We want to make the wait for a “Call of Duty”, for a “Modern Warfare”, worthwhile. We have a campaign that is taking a lot of risk, it’s changing a lot from the previous title. A multiplayer mode with several maps, lots of weapons, different ways to play.

We believe the value is in people playing how they want with their friends, and that it connects people. In the end, what we are looking for with “Modern Warfare 2”, and with “COD” in general, is to connect the community, so that it has the best experience and that the wait to buy a game is recovered with hours of play. With a campaign that makes you say, “Wow, I really enjoyed it.” And then that players stay engaged with the seasons, with new multiplayer maps… There will always be something new. That’s the value involved and the time we want to give back to the community.

The game underwent an open beta testing period in September. What did you think of the receptivity of the fans in this first contact? It was our most successful beta, with more hours played, more people connected. We had a lot of things to test, new maps, some improvements, changes… People who play “Modern Warfare” are very demanding. They demand perfection in every detail. The sound of the weapon, how the camera moves when the character crouchs…

There were very subtle changes from the previous game to this one and already in the beta people noticed. For example, the new jump, which is a forward jump. The camera has to behave as if the player is falling flat on their chest. We were very curious to see how the community would receive these changes.

Changes need to be gradual, so it doesn’t change what fans like. Sometimes in a sequel, it’s not because you add 10,000 things that the gameplay improves. The player has to feel that the new game is an evolution and not a change. I think in this case, from the feedback we got, people liked the changes. We’re happy to hear that. Now the expectation is high.

“Modern Warfare 2” marks the return of the “COD” franchise to the Steam store after five years. What changed in that period? When we released “Modern Warfare” [em 2019] We opted for the cross-play option because we wanted people to be able to play online with each other, no matter what platform. Now, with the game being made available on Steam, people have even more options. We know that it is a gigantic platform, very important in Latin America. We are simply giving the community one more option to play “Modern Warfare 2”.

Did the start of the Ukrainian War change the game’s development or promotion strategy in any way? “COD” is a product of fiction. We do not seek to show reality, nor any conflict that exists on the planet. We believe that the community also sees “COD” in this way, as a fictional game. We have many advisors and we do a lot of research to develop the game.

This year, much of the campaign takes place in Mexico. We have employees at the studio who work in Mexico. They had a lot of discussions and care about how to reflect a country. We’ve never had as much content based in a Latin American country as we’ll see from Mexico this year. We try to make a representation that is very respectful and at the same time interesting for the players, but it’s a fiction too. In the end, the goal of “Modern Warfare 2” is to entertain the community.

Mr. Do you believe that this will help to increase the sale of the game in Latin America? We have very high expectations for Latin America. We know that the community is very demanding, especially users in Brazil. We’re going to be doing a lot of things that we’ve never done in the franchise with the region and we’re really looking forward to seeing them all soon. We have very good surprises, not only for Mexico and Brazil, but for all of Latin America.

Many people see games like the “COD” series as fostering a culture that glorifies guns and violence. like mr. face these criticisms? The game is rated for adults and, as I said, is for entertainment. It’s no different than a television series or a movie. That’s the main objective, to entertain. We do not seek to glorify violence in any way.

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Cyberpunk 2077

(PC, Xbox One/X/S, PS 4/5)

I’ve already said bad things about this game. Almost two years after its release and after dozens of patches, I decided to jump on the game’s renaissance wave and give CD Projekt Red’s latest release a new chance. Now, playing on a PlayStation 5, I can say that many of the bugs that “Cyberpunk 2077” had on its release have been fixed. The title is far from the masterpiece that was expected from the creators of “The Witcher 3” and still falls short of the very high expectations created at its launch, but it is fun. If you were also disappointed with the title two years ago and still haven’t asked for a refund, it’s worth taking the record out of the back of the drawer and giving it another chance.

update

news, launches, business and what else matters

• Microsoft plans to launch a mobile game store to compete with Apple and Google, reports The Verge. The publication found indications of the ambition of the Bill Gates company in documents sent to the CMA (the UK market regulator), which is evaluating the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.

• Mojang announced in a live its plans for the future of “Minecraft”. Among the novelties are the inclusion of new materials (bamboo), objects (interactive bookcases) and dromedaries. In addition, the event served to reveal more information about “Minecraft Legends”, a new game in the franchise scheduled for release in 2023.

• After urging fans to boycott the game “Bayonetta 3” and saying he was offered just $4,000 to work on the game, voice actress Helena Taylor stated on Twitter that the initial offer she received was actually $15,000. After turning down this proposal, PlatinumGames, the game’s developer, reportedly made the offer of US$ 4,000 for a smaller stake.

• Eight years after the release of “The Sims 4”, Electronic Arts announced that it is developing a new game in the series. Dubbed “Project Rene”, the new game is in an early stage of development and has no set release date. Still, the company showed fans some of the material they’re working on at the “Behind The Sims Summit” virtual event.

• Netflix vice president of gaming Mike Verdu said the company is “seriously thinking about offering cloud gaming” in the future. The revelation was made during the executive’s interview at TechCrunch Disrupt and would mean a change in the company’s current project for games, focused exclusively on mobile games. Netflix also announced that it will open a new game studio in California under the direction of Chacko Sonny, who worked at Blizzard as an executive producer on “Overwatch.”

• Ten years after the release of the last game in the “Silent Hill” series, Konami has announced five new projects in the franchise. Three new games are in the works, including a remake of “Silent Hill 2” for PlayStation 5 and PC, a movie and an interactive series, the latter being the only one that has a release date: 2023.

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“Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike And The Quest For Stale Gum”: price not available (PC, Switch, Xbox One, PS 4)

27.Oct

“Saturnalia”: BRL 99.99 (Switch), price not available (PC, Xbox One/X/S, PS 4/5)

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October 28

“Bayonetta 3”: BRL 299 (Switch)

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”: BRL 299.90 (PC), BRL 329.90 (Xbox One/X/S, PS 4/5)

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