Hello, not long before Cold War released, Treyarch was developing their own Battle Royale mode for the game. However, they were told to scrap their efforts and help with Warzone. Instead of letting their efforts go to waste, they divided the main parts of the map they were developing and created a brand new mode for them to be played on – Fireteam
The thing that always confused me was the fact that Warzone wasn't even worth playing. The UI and HUD looked like it was from a mobile game, the graphics were blurry and hazy, the movement was awful because of the jitteriness and Tac-Sprint, the map was annoying because of all the unnecessary clutter, and the contracts was a stupid idea. Go look for an enemy that could possibly be a lot better than you? Go loot some boxes? Go stand on a point? Whatever happened to just a normal game?
The buy stations would get camped out, and the killstreaks bought from the buy stations just ruined the entire purpose of a BR. What's the point of trying to be strategic and navigate the circle wisely, only for someone to call an airstrike? It's no longer a barebones survival match, but a game of "Who's got the better killstreak"
Yet even though Warzone was one of the most bland and cheap games I've ever seen from a high-end studio, the millions of fans it brought would not only bring in the money, but defend it. And because they were responsible for most of the last quarter's profits, every single game since Warzone has been revolved around them – despite how low their standards are for a game
Look at the games after Cold War, since that was mostly developed before Warzone was released. The UI and HUD barely changed, the graphics remained identical, the core movement remained identical, and even in Zombies, there's now maps, the ability to ping everything, armor plates, self revives, and whatever other things copied over from Warzone. Someone would need to be blind to not see the correlation
Fireteam may not be able to dethrone Warzone if it was also free (but not obliterated with the constant crossovers and bullshit), but I believe it'd at least be another free option many players would turn to. Many players who realized just how uninspired and unoriginal Warzone is believe that almost everything about it's an improvement
The UI and HUD remains true to it's theme of the 1980s, the graphics are less blurry, the movement is more simple and sleek with no Tac-Sprint, the map isn't cluttered, and there's no gimmicks like contracts. You just played the mode for what it is. Speaking of which, the mode itself was actually original, instead of just another BR
Cold War and Fireteam is in no way perfect, but it's most certainly a strong improvement over the game that started the downfall of this franchise in general. At least the next 5 games didn't need to revolve around it