Call of Duty Leaves Console Behind
September 27, 2020 5:43:00 pm
The console market has often had little representation in the world of esports – whilst there are titles in esports such as the Super Smash Bros Series and a number of Street Fighter titles, the entire market has often been attributed to the growing list of PC games that are available. There has always been one outlier, however, as Call of Duty had traditionally found its home on the consoles, initially being played on Microsoft’s Xbox systems but moving to the Sony PlayStation in recent years. But as with all things, the end of an era has come as the CDL, Call of Duty’s professional league, will be moving to the PC platform in 2021.
Whilst the platform will be moved, the players will still be required to use an approved league controller of their choice however as the mouse and keyboard option is still unavailable – whether this is because of the aim assist inherent with controllers that would sway things, or just to make the change more gradual for former console players, but it is expected that this
change will come eventually. There have been a number of reasons for this change – one of the primary reasons have been attributed to many of the technical difficulties associated with broadcasting from the console side of things, with the hopes that the change to PC and the existing broadcasting infrastructure from other events and games that the viewer experience will improve – Call of Duty has long been outshined by many of the other esports offerings so this shift may offer a way for the game to move back into the limelight a little.
Another reason why this change has occurred is to open the door for online cross play for competitors – yet another reason why a controller is likely mandatory. Allowing players to enter qualifiers online for whichever system they have, whether PC, Xbox, or PlayStation allows for a bigger diversity in competition who can enter, whether or not there will be any performance differences between the two especially in the higher end systems is yet to be seen, but with the next generation consoles releasing this holiday season that gap may certainly be bridged sooner rather than later if it does exist.
There has been widespread support for this change however, although some initial concerns that will need to be overcome the outlook is largely positive and it isn’t surprising why – esports is growing extremely quickly and the markets around them are growing at just as fast a pace, esports betting has become a core part of the industry for many as fans of regular sporting events find some familiarity to make the change – with a shift to PC, the additional broadcasting options and solving the inherent issues with console, we may once again see Call of Duty reach the heights it did way back in the late 2000’s, and early teens when console gaming was at its most popular, and when Call of Duty first really hit its stride.