During an earnings call in February, video game publisher Activision announced that it would be taking its Call of Duty franchise “back to its roots,” fueling speculation that the next entry would be returning to the Second World War. Now, leaked marketing materials help reinforce that speculation.
An anonymous individual sent Spiderlaw, of the YouTube channel TheFamilyVideoGamers, a series of promotional images supposedly from someone “close to the project over at Sledgehammer.” The images appear to be marketing concepts for a game called Call of Duty: WWII, and show off scenes from the Allied landings at Normandy in 1944.
If these images are correct, the change could mean that Activision’s franchise is going back to its origins. While the first entries in the franchise were set during the Second World War, more recent entries, such as Modern Warfare 3 and Infinite Warfare are set in the future. During its earning call, the company noted that the futuristic settings didn’t resonate with its audience, and that “traditional combat will once again take center stage.” Notably, Call of Duty’s leading competing title, Battlefield, recently went back in time with Battlefield 1, a shooter set during the First World War. Polygon noted that these types of leaks are not unprecedented, and that the company typically reveals games in April or May.