MICROSOFT'S MARVEL: EXPLORING THE HIGHS OF CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6

No game series in the first-person shooter genre has held a long-term spotlight quite like Call of Duty. So when the Direct for ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ ended with a tease for a future of first-person combat, the announcement at the forefront of fans’ minds was that the trendy ‘battle-pass’ incentive model is being replaced by a return to a more traditional ‘prestige’ system. This is a move that represents linking the past with hopes for new possibilities, and that’s what this essay – an exploration of what the Microsoft-backed first-person shooter has meant and could mean in our lives – is all about.

REVIVING THE PRESTIGE: A NOSTALGIC YET FRESH START

The beating heart of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is unequivocally the revitalised prestige system. Where progression used to plateau, players are now presented with the power to reset their journey – or rather, ‘prestige’ – after reaching the player level cap. Ten prestiges, each of which serve as a natural checkpoint brimming with special rewards, dare you to show your mettle, prove your loyalty, and aim for the top. Reaching rank 10 of each prestige is maxing out, but it’s not the end; it’s a brand-new beginning. Enter the Prestige Master Mode, a titanic test of endurance as you continue to climb through 1000 more levels for a ‘classified reward’.

FROM START TO MASTERY: AN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF CHALLENGES

What is different about ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ is not only the breadth of its prestige scheme, but the fact that many of those levels are available from day one of purchase, pushing players towards excellence from their first mission to the last. ‘Our hope is to make every level and every XP more meaningful than ever before,’ says Lawrence Metten, the studio’s lead game designer and the point man behind the game’s direction, summing up Treyarch’s desire and intent with the game. ‘We really wanted to take all the best things we’ve learned from the past and come up with a scheme that defines, in Call of Duty’s universe, what does it truly feel like to progress and persevere?’

THE EVOLUTIONARY TALE OF BLACK OPS

It’s easy to miss that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is neither a bug nor a ritual, but a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Indeed, there were no more clues than that in producer ‘Jon Irons’ tweet on 3 March. Instead, the mystery deepened with a series of ever more cryptic teasers, culminating in the unveiling of https://whoisamericatoday.com on 11 March, the website of a mysterious organisation that appears to have defaced Mount Rushmore. The game will hit the market on 25 October 2024, and will be immediately available to all Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

MICROSOFT'S MIGHT: BEYOND CALL OF DUTY

After the announcement for ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’, Microsoft are still stealing the show with more bonkers game announcements. The announcement of new Xbox models, including the striking white Xbox Series X, shows that Microsoft are still committed to providing the best gaming hardware. Xbox have also been teasing us at what games they will bring us next, like the release of Fable in 2025 and a promise of guns that blow people to bits in ‘South of Midnight’.

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE: ENGAGEMENT AND EVOLUTION

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 supposedly right around the corner, Microsoft is more invested in gamers’ desires than ever, and that investment is paying off by making what gamers want an art of the possible, with the company, and its subsidiaries such as Treyarch, producing truly innovative forms of interactive entertainment. This level of investment doesn’t just create novels we want to read, it creates novels that players want to read to a point that the very concept of playing games is altered by the nature of the players themselves.

UNDERSTANDING MICROSOFT: A GAMING COLOSSUS

Microsoft Corporation, founded in 1975, has grown to become a hub of innovation in technology, but the company’s gaming subsidiary, Xbox, has been at the forefront of innovation in the gaming field. With its blockbuster games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2019) and the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which gives its users access to a library of games, Microsoft has continued to push the gaming industry forward. This push includes the development of next-generation consoles for gaming as well as the development of more games through the Xbox Game Studios division.

The jaunt through ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ is a testament not just to the power of Microsoft’s gaming ambitions, but to its embrace of the evolving relationship between technology, creativity and community that underpins its gamer identity. As Microsoft invests in these values, gamers wait with bated breath to see where it’ll take them next.