Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 rumours: no campaign, and a battle royale mode

With a month to go until Activision start blabbing about Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4, the last annual sequel in their mega-blockbuster shooter series, the rumour mill is filling in the space. According to whispers on the wind, Cod Blops 4 won't have a traditional story campaign, scrapped because it wasn't going to be ready in time for the October launch, and will instead focus on multiplayer and the cooperative Zombies mode. Other whispers say that the game will have a battle royale mode too. Activision reply that they "don't comment on rumor and speculation." Believe as much or as little as you please.

Polygon report that their mysterious sources told them "that as Black Ops 4's release date approached, it became evident that development on the single-player campaign wouldn't be completed," so it was dropped. One source tells them that developers Treyarch are instead focusing on expanding multiplayer and the Zombies wave survival mode. While Zombies can be played solo, if this is true, Cod Blops 4 is basically multiplayer.

Kotaku have since followed up saying their sources have corroborated the report that Cod Blops doesn't have a story campaign.

If this turns out to be true, heck, I'm surprised it's taken this long for such a major problem to emerge given the relentless pace of annual sequels and the escalating workloads as the series progresses in technology generations. Not having a campaign would suck, but such is the nature of annual sequels. With delays presumably not an option for Activision, Treyarch would simply need to make it work.

Both Kotaku and Charlie Intel further report they've heard whispers that Cod Blops 4 will have a battle royale mode. It was inevitable that a mega-budget FPS would draw from the craze headlined by Playerunknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale, and supposedly here we go. I am actually curious to see how this is. Call Of Duty is a zippy game which often has weird perks and abilities, and that might shake out in interesting ways in battle royale.

All this is only rumour, mind. None of it's official. All of it might be wrong. Or some of it. Or none of it. We'll start to get some answers on May 17th, when Activision will hold a reveal-o-rama event. The game's due to launch on October 12th.