Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Playlist Process

We want to give our community insight on the design process for the Playlist calendar in Call of Duty®: Warzone™.

With over 20 unique Modes, most with different squad sizes, it’s a great problem to have such a wealth of content to choose from when planning Playlist rotations. Below we will go into detail as to why we rotate Modes, and what we are planning going forward.

When we plan and discuss the Playlist for each season, we have some key design values and principles that we follow:
 

Player Motivations

With more than 100,000,000 Warzone Players, we recognize that each Player is motivated by different gameplay experiences. A Player who loves Plunder may not necessarily love Rebirth Resurgence, but may like other objective based Modes like Payload. Equally a Player who loves Battle Royale may not love Blood Money, but might enjoy Iron Trials. We look at all available data and sentiment to constantly monitor the success of each Mode, so these motivations represent our guiding light each week to make sure that we cater to as many Players as possible.

sURPRISE AND ENGAGE

If Warzone had nothing but Battle Royale and Plunder since launch, we wouldn’t have expanded to deliver new experiences like Resurgence, Payload, Iron Trials and more. We’ve seen that the rotation of Modes keeps the game engaging and results in Players experimenting with Modes they haven’t played before - as well as allowing our teams the freedom to find the next great Warzone experience. There remains a balance here, which we will go into more detail on below.

SQUAD SIZES

We know that Players like to play with different squad sizes, whether that’s solos, quads, or anywhere in between. This may be motivated by your own social circle or by a specific experience that you might be looking for. This is one of the most challenging aspects to design for when respecting the above design values and keeping the pool healthy, so we historically have focused on a healthy rotation of squad sizes but going forward we will be delivering more stability and consistency. 

communication

A few months ago we shifted from sharing Playlists on a weekly cadence to announcing multiple weeks at a time. This was due to feedback from Players and tournaments alike that you wanted more time to plan ahead. The team has endeavored to lock in the Playlist and communicate it as early as possible to you - and we still have room to refine this process. We will continue to balance timely communication while providing flexibility for pivots when necessary... Unless we want to keep something a fun secret of course…

We use these principles and values as guidelines and do our best to meet each of them as criteria for every Playlist. However, sometimes we choose to venture off the beaten path. This is why at times we experiment; we have had weeks where we bring back old favorites, or mixed up the squad sizes across modes. This gives us an opportunity to listen to the community and consistently factor it into how we balance Playlist design in the future.

With all of that said we wanted to conclude by giving an insight into the plans for the remainder of the Season. Our philosophy here has been to give Players a “best-of-season” outro with more consistent squad size availability - whilst still having a little fun with the bonus 4-day Buy Backs Royale event to end! This brings additional benefits in giving our teams time to focus on addressing other Player feedback in Warzone, all while planning for the new Modes that lay ahead of us – including what's to come in Season 2 on February 14th.

We’d like to thank everyone for the continued feedback and for joining us on this journey.

- Team Warzone

PLAYLIST

*The Playlist for the week of February 10th will last until February 13th due to the upcoming Season 2 launch.

For regular updates about the Playlist and other Scheduled Events, check out the dedicated Warzone Trello Board.

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