To no one’s surprise, Activision has officially confirmed that a new Call of Duty game is in development and is due to be released later this year. Outside of that confirmation, very few details have been revealed about Call of Duty 2020, as Activision has yet to announce which developer is behind the project or which platforms it will be released on. If rumors are to be believed, the publisher is keeping tight-lipped for now due to ongoing issues with development, and with a console generation transition on the horizon, the 10-year anniversary of a beloved Call of Duty game could be their way of smoothing things over.
According to a series of rumors in May last year, the development of Call of Duty 2020 had been shifted from Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games due to a troubled development process, with Treyarch starting development on Black Ops 5. The last time Activision wasn’t confident about how a project would perform, it released Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered as a tie-in with Infinite Warfare as an alternative and a way to boost sales. This November will be the 10th anniversary of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops, the highest-selling Call of Duty game of all time as of October 2019. With such a strong legacy behind it, why not give it the same remaster treatment to combat development woes, boost sales numbers, and guarantee a smooth transition to PS5 and Xbox Series X?
The Legacy of the Black Ops Campaign
Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty: Black Ops released in the prime of the franchise’s mainstream success following the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. At the time, Call of Duty was finding a lot of success in the modern to near-future, yet coming off the back of WWII, Black Ops acts as a sequel to Call of Duty: World At War and takes place during the Cold War with the story following a series of clandestine black operations conducted by the United States CIA.
Players take on the role of Alex Mason, played by Avatar’s Sam Worthington, a former Force Recon Captain that’s strapped to a chair and being interrogated by person’s unknown. What follows is a fascinating and complex tale of black operative missions, government corruption, sleeper agents, brainwashing, and fantastic characters like Master Seargent Frank Woods, and World At War’s Viktor Reznov. If Call of Duty 4’s ‘All Ghillied Up’ is the most iconic mission in the entire series, “the numbers, Mason,” might be the most iconic line said in any Call of Duty campaign to this day.
The Legacy of Black Ops Multiplayer
Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer took everything that made Call of Duty 4 the icon that it is today and cranked it up to eleven but it heavily suffered from balancing issues that were never fixed, turning the game into a chaotic mess. Despite following a similar formula, Treyarch saw what happened the previous year and built the Black Ops multiplayer almost as a direct response to all the criticism. Noob tubes and explosives were nerfed into oblivion, killstreaks no longer stacked, no more Commando knife lunges, and the list goes on. It wasn’t without its own long list of problems, but when push comes to shove, the multiplayer was balanced.
The multiplayer for Black Ops also introduced a number of features that have become staples of the franchise. Black Ops was the first time Call of Duty had customizable emblems, character customization in the form of face paints and perk-based outfits, the introduction of wager matches, and new modes like Gun Game or Combat Training, a new mode where players could try out new weapons against AI opponents. Not to mention all of the iconic Black Ops maps like Nuketown, Firing Range, Summit, Jungle, and Stadium.
The Legacy of Black Ops Zombies
Every Call of Duty fan knows about the Zombies mode, as it’s become a pillar for what Call of Duty stands for and is treated just as important as the campaign or multiplayer. Treyarch first created the Zombies mode in World at War but it perfected the formula with Black Ops. The Zombies mode in Black Ops saw the return of the original four Nazi Zombies maps, introduced iconic new maps like Kino Der Toten, fun new perks like Stamin-Up, roaming bosses like a zombified George Romero, and long cooperative Easter Eggs quests with an ongoing narrative that ended up on the Moon.
Call of Duty: Black Ops was the first time that the Zombies mode appeared at launch as a pillar activity with its own development team and creative leads. Like World at War, new maps were released with each mainline DLC map pack, and it received a fourth Zombies only map pack before the end of the game’s lifecycle. Long-term Call of Duty Zombies fans might be a little tired of the same old gameplay in more recent iterations but that formula was built and perfected in the original Black Ops, forever changing it from a fun optional side-mode to the phenomenon that Zombies still is today.
Call of Duty 2020 was originally scheduled to be developed by Sledgehammer Games, but it was rumored that support team Raven Software had taken the reins for the first time after developing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. Reports in May 2019 later claimed that ongoing problems with development led to the game being scrapped and Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch had restarted production on Call of Duty 2020 with only a two-year development cycle instead of the usual three. Considering Raven Software’s history with the franchise and MWR, it isn’t farfetched to think that the team could’ve begun work on a remaster of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops for the games tenth anniversary.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Remastered could easily stand on its own as the singular title for the year, released with all of the original content and DLC, as well as new multiplayer and Zombies content. However, Activision is unlikely to take that large of a risk when the rumored Black Ops 5 has the potential to meet Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sales numbers. One way or another, the success and legacy of the original Black Ops helped launch its own brand that just about rivals Modern Warfare beat for beat, and it’s clear that both the remaster and reboot of that series turned out incredibly well for everyone involved.
Call of Duty 2020 is in development for unannounced platforms.
