As if there was ever any doubt: The Call of Duty series is getting another sibling and, as is customary, it’s anticipated to drop later in 2018. If we were to take a totally ‘random’ stab at guessing the launch date, we’d put it at 2 November 2018. Activision isn’t one to mess with (any of) a winning formula.
Rumours concerning this year’s CoD have turned up early and it seems that we’re looking at a Black Ops IV. Gaming website Eurogamer has confirmed this speculation with multiple sources, which is certainly enough for us to already be looking for the perfect scopes in older Blops titles. You know, so that we’re ready.
This info comes first by way of Mark Sellars, a self-proclaimed industry insider, who posted to Twitter mentioning that Black Ops IV will be this year’s CoD headliner. Thich was almost incidental information compared to his main point — that it’ll be available on the Switch. He might be on to something with his industry cred as, after some digging, the guys over at Eurogamer confirmed that Black Ops IV will be landing this year. The Switch portion of the claim has yet to be confirmed.
The game is being developed by Treyarch (the company responsible for all the previous Black Ops titles), and it will reportedly have fewer sci-fi features and more boots-on-the-ground action. This after the brand saw disappointing numbers from Infinite Warfare sales. Since when do people not like space, though?
We are not expecting another World War-flavoured title, but you never know. If it sticks to the Black Ops pattern Black Ops IV will boast a great storyline and be a very fun title on the single-player side — we’re hoping for some innovations on the Zombies and Multiplayer modes again but this will perhaps be dictated by the setting chosen. We also won’t complain if it’s available on the Switch in addition to the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
The Black Ops series collectively makes up the best-selling titles in the Call of Duty stable, with more than 86 million units sold in the whole series and Black Ops leading the pack with 30.4 million units sold (beaten only by Modern Warfare 3 at 30.71 million). The timing of a new sequel makes sense considering Black Ops III was released in 2015. A 2018 release gives us a three year gap — more than enough time to spin up a worthy successor.
It also helps that Activision shifted to a three-year development cycle for Call of Duty games some time back, rotating between releases between Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Infinity Ward — and we are in the Treyarch cycle.
New Call of Duty games traditionally aren’t announced (or leaked) this early, so Activision still has the final say in a few months’ time. We’re holding thumbs that this one turns out to be true – the Black Ops 3 servers are dead quiet. Expect to know more (at an official level) closer to E3 in June this year.
Source: Eurogamer
