With more news about the latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare, being released in the lead-up to E3, further details about the title's features are now making their way to the public eye. Though the title was only officially announced a few days ago alongside news that the game would support cross-play support, it has been since confirmed by Infinity Ward that the game is going to have full support for crossplay across all platforms, meaning there are no barriers between PlayStation and Xbox users.
Modern Warfare has potentially been the worst-kept secret in the industry this year. Speculation has been rife about it since April when Activision had athletes trying their hand at the title. After that, there was confirmation last month that it was indeed going to be a reboot of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Now that the game has finally been officially revealed, Infinity Ward is just starting to open up in answering some key questions after only offering vague previews and limited access (we, for example, were not allowed to interview anyone for the title).
Candice Capen, a Producer at Infinity Ward, confirmed on Twitter to a fan inquiring about crossplay rumors that everybody would be able to play with everybody else, meaning PlayStation is not trying to block this one - like it has for other titles, and for a while with Fortnite - despite the exclusivity partnership on timed DLC and such for Call of Duty titles on this generation of consoles.
While Capen's tweet appears to suggest that there will be no restrictions standing between players and queuing with others on different platforms, the exact mechanics of how such matchmaking will work have not been explicitly detailed by Infinity Ward, nor has there been any official talk of Modern Warfare introducing a new battle royale mode like Black Ops 4's Blackout - something they previously hinted would indeed come this year (there is a COD mobile title for this however).
There have been rumors that players will only be playing with or against others using a similar input scheme i.e. players who are using controllers will only play against other console players (and Xbox One now supports mouse and keyboard). However, it remains to be seen if this will be confirmed by Infinity Ward at E3 when we demo the title later this month. Modern Warfare is increasing the player count in multiplayer up to 20 from last year's 10; it's bringing back a full story campaign that serves as a soft reboot of the MW series, and beyond that we're eager to see if there are co-op and battle royale modes at launch (we expect one or both).
The crossplay feature, and new engine, along with no season pass signify major strategy changes for Activision after Black Ops 4 fell off the map not long after launch, so much so that the game's Blackout mode is virtually dead on PC. Crossplay addresses that going forward, and a new game engine means the IP may offer new mechanics and visuals - the latter they've lagged behind on rival Battlefield for years. Another feature confirmed by PCGamesN involves players being able to shoot through cover, which could speak to a more sophisticated destruction engine similar to what is currently available in Battlefield V where certain weapons can shoot through obstacles.
Sources: Infinity Ward, PCGamesN