Operation Monarch was an event on CoD: Warzone from May 11th to the 25th of May. This event was an attempt at regaining lost popularity by riding the buzz of the Godzilla vs Kong movie.
What was Operation Monarch?
The event was a big-scale challenge to players. There were 60 players in each event match, each team consisting of 4 players. Squad members could revive as long as at least one member was alive. Completing all the challenges would earn them a Legendary blueprint: SVT-40 “Ancient Rivalry”. Each completed challenge rewarded the players with rare, epic, and legendary items.
During Operation Monarch, the player had to choose a side: King Kong or Godzilla. It didn’t matter which side they chose as it all depended on the performance of each team. The challenges were as follows: to deal 1,350,000 damage to their opposing monster during the Titan Frenzy events, to deal 500,000 damage to Titans, to play Operation Monarch for 6 hours (they knew exactly what they were doing with this challenge), to collect 3,000 Monarch Intel, to use the titan S.C.R.E.A.M device kill streak once and thrice, and finally to place top 30% 12 times. All these challenges were carefully curated to ensure player retention.
It was a very well-integrated event with a large budget. However, did it regain Warzone’s popularity as they hoped?
What Operation Monarch did for CoD: Warzone
Sadly, the event was a major flop for the Call of Duty franchise. Many players criticized that the event took away from the realism that CoD always delivers. It was an undisputed loss as the CoD account took to Twitter and asked the fans directly whether it was good or bad. The results were painful; 70% of people said it was an “L” rather than a “W”. The event underwhelmed every Warzone player. It just seems that games such as Warzone, which aims for realism in its gameplay, will not do well with such alien crossovers where it completely changes the game into something else.
Many players didn’t even bother tuning in for the event as they already knew that Warzone’s time in the spotlight was over. However, don’t let this fool you. CoD: Warzone is still one of the biggest battle royale games around as of now. Its time in the first place has ended. Warzone now joined the likes of Fortnite and Apex Legends- where it stands as an established game with a core loyal fanbase.
Closing thoughts
This event was not successful in any way. However, it did prove something right. You cannot force things into a game. The crossover was too much of a stretch for such a realistic game. They took a risk and paid the price for not succeeding. Hopefully, CoD and other games learn from this mistake and always aim to withhold their usual game feel even when introducing new events.
