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With the reveal of the multiplayer portion of Call of Duty: Ghosts fast approaching, Infinity Ward’s Executive Producer Mark Rubin posted a short video on his Twitter account showing a brief glimpse of the upcoming title. What is the significance of this reveal?
The video, a mere six seconds in length, briefly pans over the earth and ultimately shows some text. The word “squad” is shown at the top of the screen with the words “online play” and “options” listed below it. Intriguingly, there was a third option that appeared to be intentionally blurred in the video. As Rubin describes in his tweet, this video was shot with a camera phone. In all, very little was revealed. Nevertheless, it has spawned much conversation regarding the significance of the content of the video.
A significant question that arises is why did Mark Rubin decide to tweet such a video a few days before the full multiplayer reveal? While the reason regarding the timing isn’t clear to me, the logic behind what was revealed is interesting to speculate about. The video essentially reveals the name of the mode and little else. Does it represent a brand new multiplayer mode or is it simply a renaming of something that has been featured in previous titles? The word choice might provide an idea of what the mode is meant to be. Squad implies a group of people engaging in some common goal, perhaps beyond the simple task of killing the enemy team or capturing an objective. If this is the case, this would be similar to the Spec Ops mode featured in the previous titles, though this mode was not included in Ghosts. Ultimately, fans of the series will simply have to wait until August 14th when the multiplayer will be revealed in full to find out more about this mode.
Let’s get back to the question posted here. Why reveal this now? What this could serve as is a strategic reminder from Infinity Ward that the game designers are seeking to innovate the game series, as they first stated during the world premiere of Ghosts at the Xbox One reveal conference.
In my opinion, what seems to be lacking in the Call of Duty series is innovation. Of course, there are some new weapon and perk additions with each released title, but the overall feel of the multiplayer experience is largely the same. Given the nature of the previous entries in the series, I fully expect to see the same multiplayer playlist in Ghosts as I did in Modern Warfare 3 and 2. In addition, some of the same issues exist in Modern Warfare 3 as they did in its predecessor. Thus, it is my hope that this squad mode is a creative and refreshing addition to the series and that it is just the first of many ways Infinity Ward is attempting to bring innovation to the Call of Duty series.
We will find out about this and more on August 14, and players will experience the full game on current gen systems this November.
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