Black Ops 2 Giveaway
We are giving away 1 free copy of Black Ops 2. To enter in our prize drawing simply fill out the short form below. The winner will be notified via email 1 week before the Call of Duty Black Ops 2 release date.
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Target Confirms Black Ops 2
Recent photos of Target pre-order cards for Black Ops 2 confirm that the game is indeed going to hit sales floors on November 13th, 2012. We’ve had plenty of leaks and hints over the past few weeks, most deliberately and diligently circulated by Activision and Treyarch. While the photos of the pre-order cards state that the game release date is “subject to change,” the release date is probably pretty certain, considering all those “Eclipse” hints that Activision was dropping. And on May 1st, we’re going to receive a lot more than hints!
How does the “Eclipse” marketing confirm that release date? Because the 13th of November is the date for a total eclipse of the sun. We may get a Call of Duty game every year, but we sure don’t get that each year. In light of that, we really hope that Black Ops 2 eclipses all the preceding games in the series. It’d be no easy task, but considering the awesomeness of the first Black Ops game, we know that Treyarch is up to the challenge. Meanwhile, don’t forget to tune into TNT’s basketball playoffs on May 1st to watch the official reveal!
Release Date Unveiled for Black Ops 2?
Activision hasn’t said a lot about Black Ops 2—indeed, Activision hasn’t even officially confirmed the name of the game, though it seems like the logical choice considering that Treyarch is the developer and the original Black Ops was such a big success—one which was left open ended and ready for a sequel.
One of the big questions about the game has of course been what month we’ll see it released. We know the game will come out this year, because we’re used to seeing a new Call of Duty game hit the shelves every year, and this year it’s Treyarch’s turn. What we don’t have is an official release date for the game. Recently however a European retailer called FNAC listed a release date for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 for November of this year.
Neither Treyarch nor Activision has commented on the release date listed by FNAC, so there is no way to know whether the date has any true significance or not. It’s possible that the page for the game is just a placeholder on the site right now, and that neither the title of the game as listed nor the release date are accurate. November would be a sensible time to release the game though since that would lead straight into the holiday season, which is always a huge time for video games. Then again, that could also be why FNAC might have chosen it as a placeholder by default. So we can’t get too excited yet—and actually, we can remain hopeful the game could still come out earlier. After all, November is the second to last month the game could possibly be released so as not to break with the annual release schedule. Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 continues to entertain us with monthly downloadable content!
Treyarch’s Chance to Shine
Treyarch were definitely the newcomers back when they released Call of Duty 3 back in 2006. While the game received average reviews, it certainly didn’t receive reviews which were as overwhelmingly positive as those merited by Call of Duty 2. It wasn’t until 2010 when Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops, that the developer finally really stood out. Black Ops broke the sales records set by Modern Warfare 2, which finally made it clear to the gaming world that Treyarch weren’t always going to be second best.
Modern Warfare 3, which was released last year by Sledgehammer, has been performing nicely, but it still hasn’t outshined Black Ops. Because of this, it seems that Treyarch is finally positioned to really shine with their next title. Because the first Black Ops game was so successful, it seems most likely that Treyarch will want to ride off of that success by making the next Call of Duty game Black Ops 2. The success of Black Ops was a surprise to most people in the gaming world, but this year it’s different—this year there’s anticipation.
How can Treyarch really take Call of Duty to the next level? One of the reasons that Modern Warfare 3 didn’t perform as well as it could have was that it didn’t push the boundaries of the game. It relied on previous formulas which had been proven effective. Treyarch has shown increasing willingness to innovate over the years, and if that willingness continues, Treyarch may do what Sledgehammer didn’t and produce a truly unique game which transforms the Call of Duty series. While COD is in no danger of failing, it is in danger of stagnating. By injecting new life into the series with Black Ops 2, Treyarch could really set the stage for future games.
Call of Duty Coming to Vita
Later this week Sony’s handheld Vita console will hit sales floors in the UK—but the real news is that later this year we’re apparently going to see a Call of Duty game released on Vita. This could potentially mean that the next COD game will come out in the fall if we read into the comment.
The statement about Call of Duty came from PlayStation SVP Guy Longworth, who was speaking with GameTailers about the games which his sons were looking forward to the most. “Of course in the autumn, they’re really looking forward to Call of Duty on Vita, and we think that’s going to be an absolute game-changer for the platform.”
Unfortunately that was the entirety of the statement, so what we don’t know is whether Longworth was referring to an existing Call of Duty title (Modern Warfare 3 for example) or a future Call of Duty title. Being as we do see a new COD game each year, though, and autumn is fairly late in the year, it stands to reason that Longworth was talking about the next COD game. If the game doesn’t come out by autumn, then it’ll have to come out shortly thereafter to stay with the annual schedule.
So there you have it—a tentative release date for the next COD game. The game is rumored to be called “Black Ops 2,” and is being developed by Treyarch. If the title is correct, then it should follow up Call of Duty: Black Ops and tie up loose ends and answer questions which were left open ended at the end of the previous installment. Perhaps the news about the COD release for Vita will help drive up the Vita’s sales figures, which have been lagging a bit since the console had a rocky release.
Amazon France Lists Next COD Game as “Black Ops 2”
Yet more evidence that the next Call of Duty game will be called “Black Ops 2” has emerged on the internet last week. The French video game website Gameblog.fr released a screenshot of Amazon France’s page for the next Call of Duty game, which was listed as “Black Ops 2.” When the story hit the press, it didn’t go over too well with Activision France, which asked that the story be pulled down. Gameblog.fr refused to take down the story, at which point Activision took drastic actions against them including disinviting them from attending a preview event for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. They also withdrew all their advertising contracts from the website.
After blacklisting Gameblog.fr, Activision reportedly made similar threats to several other gaming websites which had run the story. Those websites took down the story instead of face the game development company’s wrath.
Considering that this was clearly Amazon’s mistake and not the fault of the bloggers who reported the news, it seems a bit strange that Activision would go after the bloggers instead of Amazon itself, and that Activision would be so harsh about it. In light of this strangeness, it seems wise to consider that we may not know everything about this story, and that it may or may not be true or presented in its entirety.
We do know that Activision recently purchased the Black Ops 2 domain from its previous owner; recently Joystiq blog also reported discovering the LinkedIn profile of an artist who has worked on Activision projects including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Since Black Ops was such a successful and engaging game with a lot of loose ends, it makes sense that the next COD game would follow straight off of it. For all of these reasons, most of the gaming community takes it almost for granted that the next game will be Black Ops 2—which makes Activision’s violent reaction to the Gameblog.fr story even more peculiar.
Next Call of Duty Game Announced
Recently Activision made the official announcement that we’ll be seeing the next Call of Duty game before 2012 is over. This comes as no surprise to anyone considering that Activision has released a new Call of Duty game every year since releasing the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game five years ago. This game was followed up the next year with Call of Duty: World at War (developed by Treyarch), and the year after with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The year before last we saw Call of Duty: Black Ops, and last year of course Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Most gamers and analysts fully expected to see the next game by the year’s end, and on the same token, it is fully expected that it will be developed by Treyarch. Since Activision’s developers alternate years, Treyarch is the logical developer. Treyarch has said nothing about the nature of the game they are developing, and neither has Activision, but considering that Activision recently acquired the Black Ops 2 domain, it seems pretty logical to assume that the next game will be Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and that it will be a sequel to the original Call of Duty: Black Ops game, and that we will see the new game by the end of the year.
Activision did state, “This year we expect to further expand our presence with the launch of an all new epic first-person shooter under the Call of Duty brand. From what we’ve seen to date, the game already looks fantastic and will bring meaningful innovations to the franchise.”
Innovation is something which will be pivotal to the success of the next game—although it’s hard to picture any Call of Duty game being anything short of a tremendous success with the amazing sales records set by each of the games in the series. Many gamers are hoping, though, to see some new ideas at work in the next game—although we’re all also hoping for the zombies from the previous Black Ops game to make a comeback in Black Ops 2. A good combination of new and old, of tried and true and untested, exciting innovative content would probably make for the best game. Perhaps a few months down the road we’ll have some more information about what we have to look forward to with the next Call of Duty game.