Call of Duty release in 2024 is reportedly a new entry in the Black Ops series, set around the 1990s Gulf War. As per Windows Central, the title will feature a ‘nuanced’ narrative that jumps between different factions within the conflict, connecting to the Cold War. Keeping with the time period, weaponry and gadgets will bear a traditional look and feel, unlike the futuristic holographic-sited guns we’ve seen in recent Call of Duty games. Hopefully, Activision takes some lessons from the poorly-received Modern Warfare 3 and doubles down on the campaign aspects — otherwise, building the overarching lore seems futile, as players would simply begin skipping it for multiplayer.
As previously reported, Treyarch is leading development on Call of Duty 2024, having shifted its launch cycle by a year. For the uninitiated, Activision rotates between its three main developers for its annual Call of Duty games — Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games — but broke the pattern last year by moving Treyarch’s Call of Duty from 2023 to 2024, leading to the short Modern Warfare 3 getting released early. The untitled Black Ops game is said to feature a two-year life cycle, with the promise of a lengthier early access period as a pre-order bonus. As per Windows Central, keen players will be able to experience the base game ‘several days’ before release, and weeks for multiplayer and Zombies modes. The title has been codenamed ‘Cerberus’ and marks a return of the round-based Zombies mode — a detour from the newly-launched MW3, which turned it into an open-world affair.
In July, actor Luke Charles Stafford (Secret Society of Lies) inadvertently leaked on Facebook that he was serving as the model for Call of Duty 2024’s lead role, which at the time was named Ratcliffe — which according to InsiderGaming, could very well be based on the British soldier Peter Ratcliffe, who was instrumental during the aforementioned Gulf War. Circling back to multiplayer, leaked images from earlier this year suggest that classic maps from the Black Ops series will return, though some of them could always be post-launch DLC. The game also has the added responsibility of winning back its core fanbase since fumbling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which currently holds a 56 rating on Metacritic. Activision has also held back on divulging sale numbers or flaunting its player base unlike last year’s Modern Warfare 2, which made $800 million (about Rs. 6,668 crore) in its first three days. The publisher put out a thank you note claiming that players have spent more time in MW3 than the remaining reboot trilogy, with no figures to back it up.
Last month, Microsoft finally completed its long-gestating acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with CEO Phil Spencer claiming that the Call of Duty franchise will maintain ‘100 percent parity‘ across all platforms, ensuring that PlayStation players don’t miss out on any exclusive content or limited-time early access or platform-exclusive beta weekends. The company also plans to bring the older COD catalogue to Xbox Game Pass by next year.
The new Call of Duty Black Ops game is expected to launch in late 2024, presumably across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.