Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Fans Are "Hungry" For Battle-Royale Mode Blackout, Says Activision

In case you somehow didn't notice, this whole "battle-royale" thing is a pretty big deal right now. That's right, a genre once occupied only by a few games on Steam has become a phenomena in only a little over a years time, thanks to the likes of the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, particularly the latter.

In wake of the battle-royale craze, numerous developers and publishers have set their aim on the genre and grabbing a piece of the pie. Among these late arrival hopefuls, is Activision, who scratched a single-player campaign from the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and in its place has added a battle-royale mode called "Blackout." And while the publisher has yet to show off the mode, it isn't afraid to talk about it.

During the company's most recent financial earnings call, COO Coddy Johnson told investors that it has seen "tremendous interest" from fans, who are, apparently "very hungry" for the mode. Further, that early playtests of the mode have all been going swimmingly.

"We've also seen a tremendous interest in the new Blackout mode," said Johnson. "We teased earlier this week and we saw overwhelmingly positive response to the trailer we put out. I think the fans are really hungry for it. And we see it also on the playtest that we're doing, both with our own teams and the confidential tests that we bring consumers through. There is this moment-to-moment creation that happens now. Many Call of Duty games in the past were scripted, but in this the players are generating the wild helicopter rides, the takedowns from ATVs and truck beds, the powers and abilities that you find as you move through the map… It's putting in the hands of the fans this massive experience."

From the sounds of it, Blackout is taking decent shape, which makes it odd that Activision hasn't revealed it. After all, we are only two months away from launch, and it's easily the biggest question mark left.

Whatever the reason may be, a reveal should be coming soon, and it will be interesting to see the former industry juggernaut who transformed multiplayer shooters with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare a decade ago take a stab at the first monumental shift in multiplayer since.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is poised to release on October 12th via the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more on the shooter, click here.

Thanks, DualShockers.