Game Informer magazine teased that its next cover story will reveal details about the next Call of Duty game debuting in 2014. The reveal is expected to happen on Sunday.
Activision also released a video that tells the story about private military contractors, strongly suggesting that the first-person shooter coming from Activision’s Sledgehammer Games studio will be built around the theme of private armies from corporations that are taking over the military’s missions.
We’ve confirmed that the revelation is imminent. These are big deals because the story behind the single-player campaign can govern whether the title is unusually popular or weak during a given year. Call of Duty: Ghosts didn’t get a lot of praise for its story, but Call of Duty: Black Ops II did get good feedback. And the sales reflected that. We’re told that the story for the next game is a good one, and that expectations are high for it.
Call of Duty is the No. 1 video game franchise, generating $1 billion a year in revenue on an annual basis. Activision now has three major studios working on Call of Duty games, allowing the studios to rotate launches of major games every year. They are Infinity Ward (which made last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts), Treyarch (which made the Call of Duty: Black Ops), and Sledgehammer Games, which is up on the rotation this.
The Game Informer shot showed off a screen shot of soldiers in a modern setting. A soldier in the background is wearing an exoskeleton, or armor that seems a little futuristic. The video, meanwhile, is a pseudo-documentary on Blackwater, the private consulting film that built a private army which has become involved in a lot of military hot spots around the world.
The short film, made by Vice, concludes with the comment: “What happens if [private military corporations] stop taking orders and start taking over?”