Raven Software introduced Covert Exfil, which creates a new secondary win condition in season one Reloaded. The announcement frustrated players, forcing the devs to issue multiple statements in response.
Starting in Season One Reloaded on Jan. 17, squads can purchase a Covert Exfil before the Gulag closes. The expensive item allows a team to leave a match early and fulfill a secondary win condition. Covert Exfils aren’t meant to replace traditional wins but instead create a way for players to extract Weapon Cases that offer exclusive rewards.
Instead of celebrating the ambitious innovation, players questioned the devs for messing with the tried-and-true battle royale formula that already had worked so well.
Warzone devs respond to Covert Exfil backlash
A battle royale’s core principle is the last team standing wins. It’s the concept that brings players back every day, as no other game genre quite replicates the euphoria you and your friends experience after surviving a match.
Covert Exfil directly opposes what battle royale games built their reputation on, giving players a different way out. But Warzone senior creative director Ted Timmins views the feature as something that enhances the experience rather than takes away.
“This new feature is one I really believe in,” Timmins argued. “It’s challenging to pull off (I expect < 1 successful Covert Exfil per match), it gives players a path to earn new rewards from the Weapon Case, and creates a new engagement honeypot which has been great for mid-game pacing.”
If the feature doesn’t work as intended, the Raven Software dev isn’t opposed to reworking Covert Exfil to satisfy community members.
“Like everything we create, we will listen to players and look at the data. If we overcooked it – we’ll correct it,” Timmins explained.
And for players who fear Covert Exfil wins will devalue playing till the end, Raven Software confirmed that extracting via Covert Exfil does not count as a “traditional win” and will be shown as a separate stat.
On top of that, completing a Covert Exfil does not count towards Champion’s Quest progress, meaning players won’t be able to find a loophole in the system while chasing nukes.
Warzone players will get a chance to try the feature for themselves when Season One Reloaded starts on Jan. 17.
