This year’s Call of Duty title reportedly leaked, and it’s a weird one
This year’s Call of Duty title still hasn’t been announced, but we may already know the title, if a new report is to be believed. And strap in, because the purported name is a very odd one for a number of reasons.
According to a post from Twitter user and noted Call of Duty leaker Okami13_, 2020’s entry in the massive shooter franchise will be known as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. A report from Eurogamer says this information matches what it’s heard from its own sources.
It’s an odd choice for a title, mainly because Activision has chosen to use incrementing numbers, rather than subtitles piled onto subtitles, for its mainline games. Call of Duty is also one of the few high profile series to still use colons to clearly delineate subtitles, rather than just throwing together a nonsensical string of words. (We’re looking at your, Horizon Zero Dawn.) “Black Ops Cold War” isn’t technically nonsense, but it’s clumsy, especially without anything breaking up the broader series from this specific entry. Just calling it Call of Duty: Cold War, Black Ops: Cold War, or even just following in Modern Warfare‘s footsteps and calling it Call of Duty: Black Ops would have made a lot more sense.
Then again, the Black Ops series has gotten weird with its titles in the past. Who could forget the bold choice to stylize Black Ops 4‘s logo as “Black Ops IIII,” or the bold double-colon action of the PlayStation Vita spinoff, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified.
What’s also strange about this title, of course, is that a new Black Ops–branded game will be arriving just two years after the last one, 2018’s Black Ops 4. Activision has been rotating its Call of Duty studios on a three-year schedule, going from Infinity Ward, who made last year’s Modern Warfare, to Sledgehammer Games, who last made WWII, to Treyarch, who handles the Black Ops subseries. Skipping back to Black Ops so soon breaks that pattern.
Still, that would be in line with some earlier rumblings. Last May, Kotaku reported that development troubles caused Activision to put Treyarch in charge, with Sledgehammer and another studio, Raven Software, serving in support roles.
As for when we’ll learn more? Activision appears to be teasing an imminent reveal with the most recent Call of Duty: Warzone patch. Alongside the announced changes, this week’s update also opened the mysterious bunkers scattered throughout the battle royale map, and fans mining the files for new info soon discovered references to nuclear warheads, Cold War–era spy planes, and even the Black Ops’ iconic RC-XD, a remote-controlled car players can detonate on command.
