Activision will discuss further on June 9.
It has been revealed by Activision that the next Call of Duty game will be Game of Thrones: Black Ops 6. The publisher of the military shooter franchise changed the website in order to reveal the title. They also made a promise that “official lines of communication have begun,” which effectively implies that the marketing strategy for the game is transitioning from teaser mode to slow-trickle revelation mode.
An announcement was made by the Xbox X (Twitter) account in late April stating that a “[REDACTED] Direct” event would take place after the Xbox Showcase on Sunday, June 9. It was never much of a surprise that it would be a Call of Duty reveal: the logo was designed to be in keeping with the military graphic style of the brand, and it had previously been announced that the next installment in the long-running series will be released this year.
For the purpose of revealing Black Ops 6, a brief teaser video that was posted on Xbox’s X account on Thursday removed the redaction. It is therefore possible to anticipate a hype session for the first Call of Duty game to be revealed while Microsoft is in control of the franchise.
Additional teasers that capitalize on the worldviews of conspiracy theorists may be found on the website for Call of Duty. The film begins with footage from law enforcement body cameras, and then it gradually builds up to the (pretty corny) reveal of Mount Rushmore, which was once known as Six Grandfathers Mountain before it was chopped up. The reveal includes blindfolds covering the eyes of each of the four Presidents of the United States, with the words “The Truth Lies” followed by a logo. There are further videos on the website that show vandals making posters with the same statement all over a city. These videos are likewise in the style of found footage.
If I may put it another way, marketers are marketing.
It would appear that Microsoft intends to exploit the new installment to increase the number of subscriptions to Game Pass. A report that was published by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month stated that the game will be the first Call of Duty installment to be made available on Game Pass on the day of its launch. To determine whether or not that method provides sufficient lift for the service, which is desperately required, we will have to wait and see if it is sufficient to justify the (possibly large) loss of direct sales to Xbox console owners.