Modern Warfare 3 responds to XDefiant with new ability-based game mode

As the late great Nick Grindell said, "This town ain't big enough for the both of us and I'm going to give you 24 hours to get out."

Activision isn't in the business of allowing rival arena shooter games to thrive, and the Mexican standoff that it faces with XDefiant looks to be heating up.

In a surprising move, Modern Warfare 3 has rolled out an ability-based mode that breaks from the franchise's norms.

Modern Warfare 3's Mutation mode adds abilities to multiplayer

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Arriving mid-way through Modern Warfare 3 Season 4, in a handful of weeks' time, Mutation Mode will arrive as a multiplayer playlist. 

Mutation Mode will see humans take on "mutants", in a usual six versus six manner. One side, the humans, will be your usual Operators with your chosen loadouts and nothing but lead and gunpowder to take down your enemies.

The other side, the mutants, will have one of four mutations that will serve as abilities to add a different edge on getting kills.

It's not yet known what these abilities are, but having the pick of four different ones that suit your playstyle sounds very similar to a new game that has just launched with four free Factions...

This is all a bit coincidental, right?

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Granted, Call of Duty has already toyed with abilities in Modern Warfare 3 and previous titles, most recently using The Boys crossover to launch a superhero-themed game mode.

But, there's a lot more irony about the Mutations game mode that has to be released now. It's much akin to how Activision clouded out the XDefiant Beta with Double XP weekends and has shortened Season 3 to just seven weeks so that they could launch Season 4 just a week after Ubisoft's rival game was released.

Whether it's coincidence or just clever marketing, well, that's all up to you.

Mutations Mode should be released at the Season 4 Reloaded mark alongside a new G3T_H1GH3R map, taking the parkour mode to new heights, literally.