Treyarch Shares Update on ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’ Hardcore Mode

Earlier today, reports were making the rounds that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 would not feature Hardcore mode at launch. However, this isn’t the case.

The confusion began around an interaction between director David Vonderhaar and a fan on Twitter, via a post that has since been deleted for causing confusion.

The interaction in question seemingly confirmed that Hardcore mode wouldn’t be shipping with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, but this was simply a misunderstanding. Vonderhaar was speaking specfically about the game’s battle-royale mode, Blackout, not about the entire game.

In other words, Hardcore mode will be in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s multiplayer, just not in Blackout.

For those that don’t know: Hardcore mode is an alternative playlist that has featured in every Call of Duty release since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. More realistic and punishing than other modes, Hardcore mode is far from the game’s main draw, but it does have its fans who like a more life-like experience where skill and tactical planning are of greater importance than vanilla Call of Duty multiplayer.

In it, players have less health, a limited HUD, and there’s even friendly fire. It’s not a mode for everybody, but as you would expect, the game’s community was quite upset and quite confused when reports first started breaking that it wouldn’t be in the game, which is why Vonderhaar worked so quickly to set the record straight.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and is slated to release next month, on October 12. Beyond being a release in Call of Duty’s most popular sub-series, Black Ops, it notably debuts battle-royale via Blackout and also scraps the single-player campaign. Suffice to say, there’s perhaps more eyeballs on this specific Call of Duty release than has been on any Call of Duty release in quite some time.

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