Fortnite OG could kill Warzone if CoD doesn’t fix these problems quickly
Epic Games/ActivisionFortnite OG returns on Friday, December 6, and just after hitting its peak concurrent player count of all time, Call of Duty battle royale hit Warzone has to make drastic changes in key areas or risk being killed by the true titan of the genre.
Warzone launched in March 2020 to immediate fanfare and, to its credit, has consistently been a top two BR title alongside Fortnite ever since, perhaps with a bit of pushback from Apex Legends.
The game has certainly had its peaks and valleys – which live service title hasn’t? – but right now, not long after the Black Ops 6 Season 1 release, it feels as though the tide is shifting in a way Warzone hasn’t really had to experience yet.
Those who have been around for a while will remember that when Apex Legends first launched in February 2019, Fortnite was going through its own problems and players were getting frustrated. This led to Apex registering 25 million players within days, including 10 million within eight hours after its stealth launch.
Fortnite, sensing that tide shifting, made a number of quality-of-life changes and added features such as the Reboot Van, a Ping system, and a few weeks later, Hot Drop zones, all of which existed in Apex at launch.
Now, Warzone is facing similar challenges: players are frustrated with mounting problems, and the timing couldn’t be worse, as while Season 1 Reloaded arrives on December 5, just a day later Fortnite is relaunching its original map like its Day 1 again.
For that reason, Warzone has to get ahead of the curve. Here are the problems it needs to address, or risk letting Fortnite become a unanimous number 1 again.
Servers, servers, and servers again
For years, dedicated COD players have complained about the 20hz servers that mean desync issues can run rampant, while hit registration can often be a coin flip on whether it works as intended.
However, it’s reached a fever pitch in Warzone now, and has become a key topic of discussion and frustration among the playerbase as the issue is worse than ever, with many huge streamers and content creators calling out the server problems.
This was highlighted in a viral tweet from HusKerrs, who posted two clips and was mindblown at how most of his shots weren’t hitting.
HusKerrs responded to one comment too, adding that his XM4 has a 1080 m/s bullet velocity, meaning that any conversation around hitscan vs leading the shots is essentially void.
There has also been a frequent problem where players are actively shooting an opponent, see blood coming out of them, yet get no hitmarkers and do no damage.
This was addressed in a post from the COD Updates team, which was met with about as much respect as you would find in a 2009 MW2 lobby.
They said: “We’ve identified an issue that could result in erroneous visual blood effects when damage was not actually dealt while shooting at enemies in all modes.”
Immediately, they were accused of gaslighting and simply attempting to cover up a problem that they know they have by fixing the proof that it was happening, with huge names such as Cloakzy, Metaphor, and Kalei all questioning the validity of the statement.
The post felt like a slap in the face to every player who has stuck by the game through each major problem, the bugs, the hackers, and every other obstacle that has gone unfixed. With many of these players already weighing up their options, it could be a quick turnaround for them trying to find a new game, and the nostalgic temptation of Fortnite OG being too much.
Hackers Paradise
No, that’s not the name of a new Warzone POI, but it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable either.
Warzone has always had a severe cheating problem and it’s become as bad as ever in recent weeks since the Black Ops 6 integration. Despite a ban wave seeing off 19,000 cheaters, it feels like a dent has barely been made at all.
And, despite how many more players Fortnite has had than Warzone, the hacking problem was never even anywhere close to what it is in Warzone on its best days.
Activision’s failure to appropriately address the problem has already driven away thousands of players and will only continue to do so more as it continues. Ricochet is simply not a powerful enough anti-cheat software and while Activision continue to make billions of dollars from COD players, it’s those exact players that have to suffer.
But why should they? This is a widespread problem that affects everybody, whether its the streamers earning millions and relying on it as their source of income, or the parents who get home in the evening and just want a couple of hours to play after tucking their kids into bed. It’s a top-down problem that simply has to be addressed, yet hasn’t.
Fortnite would never.
Stale gameplay meta
ActivisionOnce again, just like many times over the years, snipers are becoming a problem in Warzone. You simply can not play any map without seeing the glint of at least one Kar98 staring down at you from a rooftop, making the gameplay one-dimensional and, frankly, boring.
Earlier in 2024, we argued for the removal of snipers from Warzone as the meta had become so stale, despite actually being fans of sniping in COD. The issue is that using a sniper rifle should come with serious drawbacks. Kills should be impressive, not expected.
When these guns have great one-hit kill potential, aim assist, and are hard to counter, you’re playing into the hands of the lowest common denominator, and gameplay becomes frustrating and boring. Not to mention, if you try to push them aggressively, Overkill means they can simply switch to their SMG and be ready for the fight.
Forcing a ‘meta’ seems intrinsic in any first-person shooter in 2024, and that in itself isn’t necessarily a problem. The problem is that snipers have to have more drawbacks or you end up with players being punished for simply moving.
So, now, you have a game where snipers run rampant on rooftops, you drop hundreds of bullets into an enemy without a sniff of a hitmarker, and right when you get to the final circle, a hacker just looks at you and you’re dead.
Alternatively, you have the original Fortnite back in all its glory, just how you remember it from when you got your first Victory Royale. What sounds more fun to you?