On its own, Call of Duty: Warzone is a fantastic new game mode and a unique take on the battle royale genre, but its cross-progression system is one of the things it does best and has nothing to do with gameplay at all, at least not directly. Players who enjoy both Modern Warfare and Warzone are in for a real treat, as playing the newest mode will provide direct benefits to the game they already love.
With the newest mode, all progression made while playing Warzone is applied directly to Modern Warfare. This corresponds to virtually everything that can award progression, including XP, Weapon XP, any items that are unlocked through gameplay, and Battle Pass tiers. Even better, this is spread across a player’s Activision and Call of Duty account, which is not limited by platform. Regardless of which platform one uses, so long as their account is linked on each, cross progression will occur automatically.
Activision refers to this useful feature as unified progression. Since there are so many players who have unlocked all kinds of items in Modern Warfare, it makes perfect sense to also have them unlocked in Warzone, which can include weapons, customization items, Operators, and more from the Battle Pass. The combination of continually progressing in Modern Warfare while still being able to use rewards in Warzone is sure to be a bit hit and keep players actively engaged in the long term.
Another great point is that players who may be completely new to the Call of Duty franchise and do not own Modern Warfare can still benefit in this cross progression eventually. If ever a player decides to purchase Modern Warfare they will retroactively receive all of the progress made while playing Warzone. Since Modern Warfare has been known to go on sale throughout the year, players should not feel rushed into buying the game but be comfortable in knowing that progress will always be there for the taking if they ever do decide to buy in.
Without a doubt, the cross-progression feature is a major strong point that will draw players into the new mode and keep them engaged. Other games could learn from this, including Fortnite and its premium portion of the game Save the World. Some organizations do create cross promotional events, most notably Blizzard between most of its games, rewarding an item for one game by playing another, but these are often limited time events to help with marketing.
At the very least, what Activision is doing here is something that other developers should keep a close eye on. If successful, players will be drawn in and kept in a loop of alternating game modes, ultimately spending most of their time, and presumably money, on only one title thanks to the constant feeling of progression in all modes regardless of which they choose.
Source: support.activision.com, blog.activision.com
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