Activision has kicked off an alternate reality game as part of its marketing campaign for the next premium Call of Duty title.
The publisher sent several influencers and fan sites a locked crate last week, with a message instructing them how to open it on August 10 at 9am/12pm ET/5pm BST.
It appears that influencers received different projector models accompanied by various slides. Some of the slides show maps of locations including Russia and New York.
Update 10/08/20:
Dataminers investigating what’s reportedlyan alpha build of the next Call of Duty gamepreviously uncovered suggestions that the game’s campaign will visit locations including Russia, Germany, Vietnam and Nicaragua.
Ok…think we sorta got this thing setup? But our projection is appearing blurry and there’s no way to adjust the focus on this thing that we can tell so far….pic.twitter.com/w0BOwlKonE
Dataminers also found the following multiplayer references, suggesting they could be map names: Black Sea, Cartel, KGB, Miami, Moscow, Satellite, Tank, and Tundra.
The map Summit looks to be returning to#CallofDuty#BlackOpswith#COD2020!pic.twitter.com/ptP77DhcX2
Last weekActivisionconfirmed thatTreyarch and Raven Software are developing Call of Duty 2020, which is scheduled to launch later this year.
It alsogave the clearest indication yetthat Call of Duty 2020 will be announced via free-to-play battle royale gameWarzone,as previously reported by VGC.
Asked about plans to reveal the game during its second-quarter earnings call, Activision president Robert Kostich said: “All I can say in terms of timing is I expect you’ll be hearing more about this fairly soon.”
He added: “Warzone has caused up to rethink how, when and even where we reveal our upcoming titles, so we can’t wait to share with the community and we think it’s going to be very different and more engaging than anything we’ve ever done before.”
In May Warzone kicked off a meta-game which sources indicated would conclude with the unveiling ofthe next premium Call of Duty game, Black Ops: Cold War.
The game’s marketing plans have been delayed partly by the pandemic, but last week Warzone kicked off the next phase of its in-game puzzle story with the addition of new key cards anda mysterious locked roomin the new stadium area.
DeveloperInfinity Wardrecently confirmed that Warzone would tie in with other Call of Duty games beyondModern Warfare, something Kostich elaborated on last week.
“Modern Warfare and Warzone are obviously very tightly connected, I think that’s really important to the player base, and we plan to do the same with all our upcoming titles as well, our premium titles, to ensure that we can reward all of our players and give them fresh new experiences regardless of whether they choose to just play in Warzone or also play the premium game as well, so the connection will absolutely be there.”
