Call of Duty: Warzone is officially bringing Godzilla and King Kong to Caldera, adding to a diverse list of crossover events that have included Die Hard, Rambo, Scream, and Snoop Dogg. While these injections of pop culture have next to nothing to do with Warzone or any of the Call of Duty games integrated into the battle royale, they add a much-needed levity and playfulness to the game. Warzone may be bloated, and it may be frustratingly glitchy for many players, but I can look past all of that if it consistently gives me great crossover events. Warzone is the most fun when it's leaning into ridiculous crossovers.
Operation Monarch
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Rumors of a Warzone/Godzilla crossover have been swirling since February, when XFire reported that a Twitter user had shared artwork of Godzilla and King Kong in Warzone. From there, Godzilla coming to Warzone became the worst-kept secret in Caldera, with teaser trailers and images all but confirming the appearance of the monster. But the run-up to the official announcement of Godzilla and King Kong coming to Warzone gave players something to be genuinely excited about. There was a playfulness, a brilliant teasing-out that Warzone pulls off best when it's pulling in other IPs.
First, players began noticing a bizarre ripple in the water off the coast of Caldera, and murmurs began that this was where Godzilla might appear. Canonically, Godzilla is a prehistoric sea monster who is both empowered by and awakened because of nuclear radiation, so his emergence from the depths of the ocean is to be expected. Then, a Warzone promotional email that went out on April 18 showed Godzilla's unmistakable wake approaching Caldera with the words "find answers" emblazoned underneath it. A few days later, the official trailer for Operation Monarch dropped, showing King Kong flattening a plane before turning his sights on Godzilla emerging from the ocean. The two lunge at each other before the title card for the crossover appears on-screen, and the hype train reached hyperspeed.
Perhaps because of its recent struggles and various game integrations, Warzone hype has somewhat cooled in the two years since its initial launch. We know that Activision has plans to rebuild the game from the ground up for Warzone 2, but the myriad issues and bugs that have cropped up after both Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard were integrated into the battle royale have made it tough to get excited about Warzone as of late.
But this crossover has got players very excited. Warzone content creators like Inkslasher were shocked by the boldness of the event. "'It is rare that I am shocked when it comes to Call of Duty news," he says in a video about the Warzone/Godzilla vs Kong crossover, "I've been doing this for 10 years now and it's pretty rare that something comes out and I'm like, 'how the hell is that going to work?'"
Operation Monarch won't kick off until May 11, two weeks after Warzone Season 3 kicks off, but nods to the monsters will be littered around Caldera in the run up to their arrival. Naturally, players are wondering just how the two will integrate into the battle royale – will you get to play as one of them? Will you be fighting them? Will their battle slowly close in on you, replacing the existing ring? It's these kinds of questions and the excitement surrounding them that is keeping Warzone fresh far better than other game integrations can.
The power of pop culture
While the Warzone crossovers range from the somewhat sensible (erecting Die Hard's Nakatomi Plaza in an '80s Verdansk) to the absurd (Attack on Titan was a choice), the events always dredge up a ton of interest amongst the player base – and often outside of it. And in most cases, bizarre crossover events give Warzone devs a chance to flex out of the more rigid battle royale boundaries. The horror movie crossover event that brought in characters from Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Saw also introduced a fun new limited-time mode that embraced jump scares and chaos.
Nakatomi Plaza was a great new addition to a somewhat stale Verdansk, with side missions tucked away in the massive building that made it a hot spot for drops. Completing one of three side missions would give you a vault access card (and therefore a ton of great loot), as well as ticking off one of the challenges that tied into the '80s action hero event (which also included Rambo, of course).
Warzone crossovers feel a lot less like the game is trying to shoehorn content in where it doesn't belong, whereas integrations with the games that have launched since Modern Warfare 2 have resulted in dramatically different metas, a host of bugs, and other issues. While we're waiting for Warzone 2 (and even after it launches), Activision should continue to have these pop culture crossovers. Imagine a Transformers one where your attack helicopter transforms into Starscream, or an Everything Everywhere All at Once crossover that sees you hopping between alternate realities. If Warzone can learn anything from Fortnite, it's that the more ambitious (if not ludicrous) a live event is, the better.
While I've had my fair share of issues with Warzone, I'll be jumping on for Warzone Season 3, thanks almost entirely to Operation Monarch and the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong crossover. Keep it up, Activision. The more bizarre, the better.
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