CALL of Duty is getting a brand new game tomorrow – as fans of the epic shooter await a major reveal.
Activision will show off the new Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, before its release later this year.
Call of Duty 2020 – what is it?
Just like Christmas, Call of Duty arrives each year to the delight of gamers.
And 2020 is no different: Activision has confirmed that we have a new Call of Duty to look forward to this year.
The new game is named Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
It’s expected to run on the PS4, Xbox One, PC and the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Call of Duty 2020 release date – when is it out?
Activision has already been heavily teasing the game, and will host a major reveal on Wednesday, August 26.
Interestingly, this reveal is set to take place in Verdansk.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare players will be familiar with Verdansk as the home of Warzone, the popular Battle Royale spin-off game.
Rival title Fortnite regularly makes big announcements in-game, so it’s no surprise that Call of Duty is following suit.
Sadly, we don’t have an exact release date beyond ‘2020’ for the new Call of Duty game.
According to Activision, this is despite the ongoing global health crisis – which has created “challenges” for developers.
“The shift to remote working does add complexity in some areas of the game development process,” Activision’s COO Daniel Alegre said.
“We are implementing mitigation measures to address each of these areas.
“This includes the next premium release of Call of Duty.”
Usually Call of Duty games come out around October or November time, so expect a similar pre-Christmas launch for 2020.
Call of Duty 2020 news, rumours and leaks
The first thing to note about Call of Duty games is that they’re made for Activision by different developers, cyclically.
For instance, Infinity Ward was the studio behind last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
And this year’s game will be a Treyarch production.
Treyarch was the developer behind the following games:
- Call of Duty 3
- Call of Duty: World at War
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
And the studio also helped as an “assistant developer” on Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts and Infinite Warfare.
We don’t know much about the game, but we do know that it’s set during the Cold War.
The Cold War was a period of major tension between the USA and Soviet Union, but wasn’t an outright war in the conventional sense.
Instead, both nations supported “proxy wars” – regional conflicts used to gain global influence.
And the fact that both nations controlled nuclear weaponry meant that neither side was willing to risk a war proper.
The period is generally said to have run from 1947 through to 1991 – when the Soviet Union was dissolved.
We’ve also seen a teaser trailer that gives little away, but notes: “At the hight of the Cold War, KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov issues a chilling warning.
“He claims a spy codename “Perseus” has infiltrated Western intelligence.
“His goal: Suvert the US to ensure Soviet dominance in the arms race.
“To this day, the identity and whereabouts of Perseus remain unknown.”
Bezmenov is actually a real person, and genuinely did work for the KGB.
The teaser trailer uses actual footage from a real interview with Bezmenov, where he warned about the scale of the Soviet Union’s Cold War plans against the US.
“Understand what’s going on around you,” he said during the interview, which was borrowed for the trailer.
“You are in a state of war, and you have precious little time to save yourself.”
He went on: “There’s a slow process, which we called active measures.
“The first stage being demoralisation. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralise a nation.
“The next stage is destabilisation. What matters is essentials: economy, foreign relations, defence systems.
“The next stage is crisis. With the violent change of power, structure and economy, a period of normalisation.
“This is what will happen in the United States if you allow the schmucks to put a Big Brother government in Washington D.C., who will promise lots of things.
“Never mind if the promises are fulfilled or not.
“The tomb bomb is ticking. With every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer. The danger is real.”
It’s likely that the hunt for the spy Perseus will play a major role in the new Black Ops game.
Activision says the game is inspired by actual events: Perseus really was the codename of a possible Soviet spy.
Perseus was believed to have breached US Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapons in World War 2.
What’s unique about this new Call of Duty game is that it’s dealing with a major hangover from Modern Warfare: Warzone.
The incredible free-to-play Battle Royale game launched as part of Modern Warfare, but is now a hit in its own right.
And it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Activision won’t be chucking it out for a new Battle Royale experience in Call of Duty 2020.
Instead, it seems like Warzone will continue along in the background, potentially with updates to link it to the new game.
“We’re in kind of uncharted territories here,” said Infinity Ward’s Taylor Kurosaki, speaking to GamerGen.
“Call of Duty has been on a very regular cadence for many, many years.
“And Warzone has made us rethink exactly how best to release new content and how to integrate it.
“Call of Duty is a genre in itself: there are different branches in the Call of Duty tree, but they’re all connected in some ways.
“Warzone will be the through line that connects all of the different various sub-franchises of Call of Duty.
“It’s going to be really cool to see how the different sub-franchises sort of come in and out of focus, but Warzone will be the one constant.”
In other news, we spoke to Warzone’s creators about the future of the spin-off game.
Call of Duty Warzone is getting a graphics update for the next-gen consoles.
Call of Duty recently banned 50,000 Warzone players for cheating.
And here are some Warzone Plunder tips revealed by Pro gamer Spratt.
