Next Year’s Call of Duty is Reportedly “Black Ops 6” With Gulf War Setting

This year has been pretty special for Call of Duty, one of the most popular video game franchises that’s now the property of Microsoft. Call of Duty Modern Warfare III, which was released on November 8, is the worst-reviewed Call of Duty game in years with only the Xbox Series X|S version reaching the 60% bar on Metacritic.

Most reviews pointed out the shallow campaign that’s much shorter than usual, though multiplayer appears to be an improvement compared to last year’s Modern Warfare II episode. A recent report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier revealed that the Modern Warfare III campaign was completed in just 16 months, “the shortest development time for a new Call of Duty game in years.”

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Johanna Faries, general manager for Call of Duty, said that it was “wholly inaccurate” that the game’s development timeline was shortened. Yesterday, Activision Blizzard also claimed that Modern Warfare 3 had a “historic launch” with “the highest engagement in the new Modern Warfare trilogy.”

Thank you to our #MW3 community for setting new Modern Warfare engagement records 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OTu1oHMrCB

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) November 21, 2023

If Call of Duty Modern Warfare III was the first game in the series to be released since Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, all eyes are now on next year’s episode, which should be more representative of what we should expect from the now Microsoft-owned Activision. And according to a new report from Jez Corden from Windows Central, Call of Duty 2024 will mark a return to the popular Black Ops series.

After the release of Black Ops 4 in 2018 and Black Ops Cold War in 2020, “Black Ops 6” will reportedly be set during the first Gulf in the early nineties. Treyarch is once again expected to be the lead developer, and the game should be released during the same late fall/early winter window.

“From what we’ve been told, Black Ops “6” will attempt to explore a nuanced narrative of the Gulf War, with a critical focus on different participants within the conflict. It will dovetail into the end of the Cold War era, and explore some of the consequences therein,” Corden wrote.

The report also mentions the return of the popular zombie mode and a “more traditional military combat technology” compared to recent Modern Warfare games. Moreover, Corden mentioned rumors about popular maps from previous Black Ops possibly making a return in the new game, but he couldn’t confirm that information.

Call of Duty remains one of the most popular annualized franchises alongside sports games such as FIFA, NBA 2K, and Madden. However, it remains to be seen if Activision will stick with this formula following the troubled development of Modern Warfare III. Even though Call of Duty games continue to sell very well year after year, there may be a time when releasing these blockbuster games on an annual schedule becomes unsustainable, even for a company as big as Activision.