Winners and Losers: Call of Duty Warzone conquers while E3 hits the eject button

The tech scene is having a tough time of it at the moment. Between intercontinental trade wars and the coronavirus rampaging most supply chains, there’s been a shortage of positive news to find in the world of shiny things.

Thanks to the influx of cancellations, delays and general bad news the team here at Trusted Reviews actually had a hard time picking one clear loser this week. But after putting our heads together and wading through all the major tech headlines to arrive over the last seven days, we found one clear loser to take the bottom slot.

Digging a little deeper we also are pleased to report there has been one very clear winner that’s risen above the sea of negativity to snatch this week’s top slot.

Winner: Call of Duty Warzone

Call of Duty is the Ryan Reynolds of gaming. Whatever you stick its name next to you can guarantee is going to sell well and resonate with gamers – we’re still waiting for the ultimate crossover Detective Piccachu crossover as a result.

But this week the franchise enjoyed one of its biggest wins in years, with the launch of Warzone. At first glance the game isn’t that exciting. It’s yet another military shooter, battle royale game which only obvious differentiator from the sea of others flooding Steam is its CoD branding. But, what made it truly genius is that it saw Activision take a page out of Fortnite maker Epic’s playbook and make it completely free to play.

Yes, you read that right as of right now you can get all the triple-A polish of a Call of Duty shooter, without having to part with a single penny – genius. This is great as it means gamers that want to play a battle royale, but don’t care for Fortnite’s cartoon style, or Apex Legends Sci-Fi setting finally have a decent, free-to-play option.

We weren’t the only ones that thought the move was smart as after a mere day Activision revealed it had already seen over six million recruits sign up and play Call of Duty Warzone. No matter how you cut it those numbers aren’t to be sniffed at.

Related: Best FPS Games

Loser: E3

It wasn’t all good news in the world of gaming. This week we saw E3, the world’s largest gaming expo, throw in the towel and join the growing pile of tech conferences that have been cancelled over coronavirus, when it released the below statement:

“After careful consultation with our member companies regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry–our fans, our employees, our exhibitors and our longtime E3 partners–we have made the difficult decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles.

“Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation. We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event for our fans and supporters. But we know it’s the right decision based on the information we have today.”

This was a sad end to an expo which relevance was already being called into question well before the coronavirus hit. Sony had already opted out of the show, choosing to unveil the hotly anticipated PS5 at its own, separate event.

Other studios have also reportedly been diminishing their focus on E3 as a place to launch big new titles, since the show started letting the general public a few years ago. With the industry now set to unveil the new titles via live streams, many developers may find themselves re-evaluating what presence they’ll have at next year’s E3, if any.