Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 won't have a single-player campaign but will offer battle royale

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch has confirmed earlier rumors that the upcoming first-person shooter won’t include a traditional single-player campaign, opting instead to deliver narrative exclusively through multiplayer experiences. 

The developer discussed the shift, a series-first for Call of Duty, with GamesRadar ahead of a live streamed event today, explaining that the game will instead offer solo missions for each of its ‘specialist’ playable characters that drive the narrative forward.

“There’s a story here, but it’s being told inside of the multiplayer universe,” says Treyarch chairman Mark Lamia. He notes that the solo missions aim to give players a way to master the different offerings of each playable specialist while also allowing them to explore the stories of each character inside what the studio describes as a “narrative fiction wrapper.”

But while a single-player campaign won't be making its way to Black Ops 4, Treyarch did reveal that the company is joining the growing list of games that offer a last-man-standing battle royale mode similar to Fortnite or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds through a new Blackout mode. Shown off during a live stream earlier today, Treyarch says that the new mode features the largest multiplayer map ever featured in a Call of Duty title, one that is roughly the 1,500 times the size of the series' compact Nuketown map. 

Treyarch also announced that the zombie-fighting hoard mode will also be making a return to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and, while not a true-to-form single-player campaign, will offer players the option of playing solo with a team of NPCs as teammates.