The 2024 release of Call of Duty is reportedly a new installment in the Black Ops series, set around the Gulf War of the 1990s. According to Windows Central, the title will feature a “nuanced” narrative that shifts between different factions within the conflict, tying it to the Cold War. In keeping with the time period, weapons and gadgets will have a traditional look and feel, unlike the futuristic holographic guns we’ve seen in recent Call of Duty games. Hopefully Activision will take some lessons from the ill-received Modern Warfare 3 and double down on the campaign aspects – otherwise creating a comprehensive lore seems pointless as players will just start skipping it for multiplayer.
As previously reported, Treyarch is leading the development of Call of Duty 2024, moving the launch cycle by a year. For the uninitiated, Activision rotates its three main developers for its annual Call of Duty titles—Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games—but broke the pattern last year by moving Treyarch’s Call of Duty from 2023 to 2024, resulting in the short-lived Modern Warfare 3 comes out ahead of schedule. The untitled Black Ops game is said to have a two-year life cycle, with the promise of a longer Early Access period as a pre-order bonus. According to Windows Central, die-hard players will be able to experience the base game “a few days” before release and weeks for the multiplayer and Zombies modes. Codenamed Cerberus, the title marks the return of the round-based Zombies mode, a departure from the recently released MW3, which turned it into an open world.
In July, actor Luke Charles Stafford (The Secret Society of Lies) accidentally revealed on Facebook that he was serving as the model for the lead role in Call of Duty 2024, then named Ratcliffe — which, according to InsiderGaming, may very well have been based on about British soldier Peter Ratcliffe, who played an important role during the aforementioned Gulf War. Back to the multiplayer game, leaked images from earlier this year suggest that classic maps from the Black Ops series will return, although some of them could always be post-launch DLC. The game also has the added responsibility of winning back its core fan base after fumbling with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which currently holds a 56 on Metacritic. Activision is also not disclosing sales figures or flaunting its player base, unlike last year’s Modern Warfare 2, which earned $800 million (roughly Rs. 6,668 crore) in its first three days. The publisher posted a thank you claim that players spent more time in MW3 than the rest of the reboot trilogy, with no numbers to back it up.
Microsoft finally completed its long-running acquisition of Activision Blizzard last month, with CEO Phil Spencer saying the Call of Duty franchise will maintain “100 percent parity” across all platforms, ensuring PlayStation players won’t miss out on any exclusive content. or limited-time early access or exclusive platform beta weekends. The company also plans to bring the legacy COD catalog to Xbox Game Pass by next year.
The new Call of Duty Black Ops game is expected to launch in late 2024, presumably on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.
