As much asH1Z1andPUBGkicked off the battle royale trend,Fortnitesolidified the shooter subgenre’s popularity across the entire game industry. Without a doubt,Fortnite’s explosion in popularity in 2018 turned battle royale games into the triple-A powerhouse they’ve become in the last few years. Now even the storiedCall of Dutyfranchise has gotten in on the action, and while its first attempt wasn’t the best,Warzonehas more than made up for it. Now,Call of Dutyis taking yet another page out ofFortnite’s book in a strange but unique way.
This year’s entry in the evergreen first person shooter is coming a little later than usual, but Activision and Treyarch are trying something different this year. Rather than dropping hints and a trailer, 2020’sCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warwill be revealed in theWarzonebattle royale as a live event. Live events are nothing new, as these large scale in-game events have somewhat becomeFortnite’s specialty. But For this type of thing to happen in aCall of Dutygame, which typically doesn’t make too many leaps and bounds per each entry, it’s quite the step up.
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Black Ops Cold War’s Slow Burn of Teases
For the longest time, there have been murmurings on the internetabout 2020’sCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warreveal happening. As far back as May of 2019, rumors and leaks had detailed out the game’s Cold War setting, theBlack Opssubtitle, and numerous other specific details about the game. It wasn’t until around May this year and throughout the summer where hints of the nextCall of Dutygame were being discovered in the bunker meta-quest inCall of Duty: Warzone. The bunkers were discovered around the release ofWarzoneback in March, but their true purpose was discovered in May after several updates detailed out the interiors of each bunker.
After apuzzling quest of collecting Russian phone recordings across Verdansk, players were eventually able to get access to Bunker 11. Shortly after the meta-quest went live inWarzone, players began to discover a nuclear warhead inside Bunker 11, among other hints. As if that weren’t obvious enough, this past week even more bunkers started opening, even one with a Cold War-era nuclear missile with “CCCP” written on it. These little hints inWarzonehave all been leading up to the actual major reveal happening withinWarzoneitself, which Treyarch confirmed via Twitter on August 20.
The Power of Fortnite’s Live Event Productions
There have been plenty of live events inFortnite’s history, ranging from a giant Travis Scott concert to the reveal of Christopher Nolan’s next feature-length film. Epic Games even dedicatedan entire live event to just shutting downFortnitefor several days to update the game forFortnite: Chapter 2. The media partnerships and ambition ofFortniteitself were concepts many never expected were possible in a video game, and these events had such an impact on gaming audiences that other games likeDestiny 2tried live events as well. NowCall of Dutyis planning its own live event, but this time it’s far more ambitious and risky than anythingCall of Dutyhas tried before.
This kind of meta-game teasing inWarzoneis definitely on par with some ofFortnite’s bigger live-events, but it’s certainly a first for not onlyCall of Duty, but other shooters in general.Fortnitehas partnered up with multiple entertainment mediums for reveals/special events before, but never before has a triple-A game revealed itself organically within another triple-A video game.Call of Duty Warzoneis almost certainly setting this up to be an unprecedented moment in games, despite how especially ambitious and risky this plan may be.
What Happens to Warzone on August 26?
The consensus among theories andWarzonefans is that the nuclear warhead shown in the last bunker tease is going to be launched. Similar rumors started circulating when the first nuclear warhead was discovered in Bunker 11. The only other evidence Treyarch has provided is what looks like a Russian spy plane flying over the usualWarzoneplane, with the phrase “demoralization” phasing in and out of film grain. It does bring to mind some of the wordingfrom the initialCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warteaserearlier this week: “Know your history, or be doomed to repeat it.”
Plus, considering all the trouble Raven Software and theWarzonedevelopment team has gone through to reveal these nukes, it makes sense.Call of Duty: Warzonemay have been inspired to perform a similarly cataclysmic event toFortnite’s Chapter 2 unveiling, to the point where Activision could do the same thingto fully unveilCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. With only a few days away from the reveal,Call of Dutyfans may want to drop in to Verdansk one last time before it’s potentially destroyed forever.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warwill be revealed on June 10, 2025, inCall of Duty: Warzone.
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