There’s an interesting, but also concerning, rumor out now about this year’s incarnation of Call of Duty.
The Ghost Of Hope was pretty straightforward in his rumor, saying over the weekend:
“Hearing that COD2025s campaign is fucking terrible.”
When prodded further, he stated that it’s worse than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s campaign. This is probably the big comparison fans were looking for, because that campaign was criticized for being too short. A lot of speculation revolved around it possibly being DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II that was spun around to becoming a full retail release.
Ghost then posted a meme referring to Avalon, a location in Call of Duty: Black Ops’ lore that’s been rumored to be the next big Call of Duty: Warzone map following Verdansk. Ghost is suggesting here that the campaign will be entirely set in an open world in Avalon, and that it will skip Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 for the next game later this year.
Now, Activision hasn’t actually announced that 2025’s Call of Duty will follow the lead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Both of those games were made by Infinity Ward, and the consensus is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III turned out much worse because of the rumor we mentioned above, that it was originally Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II DLC.
The fans may be right to be worried that Activision ended up doing the same thing again, because that implies something about problems with how they schedule and plan these annual releases. But Ghost does nip this in the bud, at least a little bit.
He said this:
“Also as far as I know I don’t think Raven has anything to do with it. I heard that a lot of the campaign team for BO6 left right before game came out so I don’t think they have the man power to be responsible for this one.”
Raven Software was supporting Treyarch in making Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. To be clear, when they announced the game in June of last year, they made it explicitly clear that Raven was lead developer on its story campaign. Treyarch was partnering, mainly in a LucasArts-like role to make sure the game fit in their continuity. It’s possible that Treyarch is leading development of this story campaign this year, if the rumor is true that this year’s game is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. If that’s the case, they may avoid the pitfalls Infinity Ward fell into making Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
But that’s a big if. If the rumor is true that there is now a dedicated committee between the Call of Duty studios who are making future decisions, we hope that they are making choices and plans to improve the pace and quality of annual development. But with all of this worrisome speculation, we don’t know if anything about this rumor is even true. So as concerning as it is, this is one time we hope the leaks and rumors turn out to be completely wrong.
