The next installment to the commercially successful Call of Duty franchise has been announced. Fans had begun to speculate what the next game would be about after it had leaked that merchandise for the upcoming AAA title was listed on the GameStop database suggesting that it would be a fourth installment to the Black Ops series of games within the franchise. As expected publisher Activision opted to get in front of this leak by releasing a teaser trailer confirming the rumors.
Activision’s announcement of the fourth Black Ops entry promised that more information surrounding the title would be disclosed to fans at a “community reveal event” on May 17th. It was paired with snippets from the previous three games. The video ended with a caption stating, “forget what you know.” which suggests that the game may be a far cry from its predecessors which does make more sense as Black Ops III did not bear any real similarities to Black Ops or Black Ops II, narratively speaking.
It is likely that the popular Zombies mode will also be making it’s comeback since clips of zombies from the other games could be seen as well.
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Typically, Call of Duty titles release in early November but as previously stated that is not the case for Black Ops IIII– as stylized by Activision. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII is set to release on October 12th. It is not currently known why the publisher opted to change release dates but it is likely that they wanted to avoid competition with another AAA title that is set to release later that month which is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 which is set to release on October 26th. They are likely interested in playing it safe even after WW II’s strong commercial performance, but it is still a big gamble to return to the future after Infinite Warfare‘s disappointing sales in 2016. They will need all the space they can for this to do well.
In keeping with most of the recent Call of Duty titles, barring WW II, Black Ops IIII is set within the future, Eurogamer reports. Overall, the Black Ops storyline has proven to be a pretty expansive one. Players got to experience the Cold War, pursue a cyberterrorist, and caught a glimpse of what the world may be like in the year 2065. This has been a common place narrative in every Call of Duty title since Advanced Warfare, and it is something that has lead to polarizing results with many fans demanding that the franchise return to its roots with a more boots on the ground oriented style of gameplay. As a result of the negative feedback to 2016’s Infinite Warfare, the franchise returned to that with WW II and it is likely that Black Ops IIII will also maintain a grounded feeling.
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII is set to release on October 12th for Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Windows PC.
What do you think of this news? Are you excited for Black Ops IIII? Let us know in the comments!
