Call of Duty Black Ops 4: release date, news and rumors

Update: Today was a big day if you're a Call of Duty Black Ops 4 (styled IIII, for some odd reason) fan. Activision announced that while BO4 won't offer a traditional single-player campaign, the game will feature more multiplayer modes than ever before including three zombie campaigns and a new mode called Blackout that will seem similar to gamers who have played battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG.

Activision unveiled two trailers for the zombie modes - one that features a Titanic-like ship setting and one that places you in an Egyptian gladiatorial arena - and one mutliplayer trailer that shows some of the skills you can look forward to using against online opponents. Activision also confirmed that the game will be available on PS4, Xbox One and PC starting on October 12.

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Call of Duty is one of those franchises that you can count on. Like FIFA, it doesn’t miss its yearly slot on the release calendar and, to be frank, we like that kind of stability in our gaming lives.

Activision has now confirmed that 2018 will see the release Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and that Treyach is the studio working on it. Last year's Call of Duty WW2 was largely well-received and there was an uptick in the sales figures, so the decision to keep going with the series has surprised no one.

Details on Black Ops 4 are pretty thin on the ground at the moment, given it's just been confirmed but here you'll find all the latest news and rumors.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The 2018 installment of the Call of Duty franchise
When can I play it? October 12
What can I play it on? It’s usually Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, but if rumors are correct you’ll also it on Nintendo Switch too

Release date

Activision has now confirmed that the game will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 12 2018.

Trailers

News and rumors

Now that Activision has confirmed there will be a Call of Duty game in 2018 and it's a new title in the Black Ops series we're just avidly awaiting more information.

Zombies!

Activision announced a handful of new zombie campaigns for BlOps IIII and we're expecting to hear more at E3.

A Nintendo Switch release?

It feels like every second day brings a brand new Call of Duty Black Ops 4 rumor. The latest is from Game Intel, who are reporting that a "trusted source" has said Black Ops 4 will be coming to the Nintendo Switch.

Before you get too excited, this source has also said that it won't be a full version of the game. It will instead be a battle royale release, with no Zombies mode or true online multiplayer.

As you'd expect, Activision hasn't commented on these rumors so we suggest taking them with a pinch of salt for now.

That said, all recent rumors for the game are tying in well together to create a rather interesting picture for the future of Call of Duty. If the game really doesn't have a single-player campaign and will instead sport a battle royale mode, a Switch release for this mode alone wouldn't be such a terrible idea. It's certainly not been holding Fortnite back. If Call of Duty managed to get the first battle royale release on Nintendo Switch it could be unstoppable.

No single-player campaign?

A big change for this iteration of Call of Duty Black Ops will be the lack of a traditional single-player campaign. Instead, Treyarch will be taking a page from Destiny 2's book and try to 'weave story-telling elements into the multiplayer.'

That doesn't mean you won't get a solid story, it just means you might need a new friends to see it all the way through.

Blackout a.k.a. Battle Royale

With the ongoing success of PUBG and Fortnite, other developers are naturally paying attention. Acitvision Blizzard in particular has said it's "keenly aware" of the sub-genre's popularity. Does this mean we could see a battle royale mode come to Black Ops 4? Apparently, it does.

We don't know much about it, but that's what Call of Duty's new Blackout mode is all about. According to Activision, it will feature the biggest map ever featured in a Call of Duty game, and include ground, air, and sea vehicles.

Vonderhaar tweets

Treyarch designer and director David Vonderhaar has been teasing Call of Duty Black Ops 4 on Twitter in the strangest way recently. Vonderhaar has changed his name to Redacted and removed all of his tweets from his profile with the exception of one which reads:

It's obscure, but it's a possible hint as to the route Black Ops 4 will be taking with its plot.

Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is confirmed

On March 8, Activision confirmed that Call of Duty's 2018 outing would indeed be Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and that we'll see the game released on October 12. Before this, though, there's going to be a community reveal event held on May 17 where we'll get the chance to see more about the game.

A Gamestop leak

A further sign that Call of Duty 2018 will indeed be Black Ops 4 came from a leaked Gamestop listing in March 2018. CharlieIntel reported that an insider sent images of an internal database of listings for Call of Duty Black Ops 4.

The listings are for various pieces of merchandise including T-shirts and lanyards which are expected to arrive in May 2018. This suggests that we'll see the official announcement of the game before this and given Activision announced Call of Duty WW2 in April last year, that doesn't seem entirely unlikely. It's not certain, of course, whether these rumors are accurate and Activision is yet to comment. We'll update with further information as it becomes available

Activision confirms Call of Duty 2018 and Treyarch

In an earnings call in February 2018, Activision confirmed to the surprise of no one that there would be a Call of Duty game coming in 2018. It also added that Treyarch would be the studio working on the game. Activision didn't go so far as to say that this would be another Black Ops installment, but given Treyarch is the studio behind all of the previous Black Ops titles and there are already rumors swirling that 2018 will see the release of Black Ops 4 this seems likely.

Tweets and the Eurogamer report

The prevailing rumor at the moment is that the next call of duty game will be Call of Duty Black Ops 4. The initial rumor was started by a self-styled industry insider known as Marcus Sellars who took to Twitter to announce some information on the game.

According to Sellars, Call of Duty Black Ops 4 will be set in the modern day, taking a more ‘boots on the ground’ approach in line with the recent Call of Duty WW2 release. The game would, he states, be released on PC, Xbox One and PS4 as you’d expect but he added that a Nintendo Switch port is also in the works.

This tweet was then followed up by a report from Eurogamer, which stated that multiple sources have confirmed Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is indeed in the works at Treyarch studios, with an aim for a late 2018 release.

Given Treyarch has been the studio behind the last three Black Ops titles, it’s safe to say the game will be in safe hands.

Eurogamer’s report also stated that the game would be set in the modern day due to the negativity around Infinite Warfare’s futuristic setting, however it didn’t corroborate Sellars’ claim that there would be a Switch port.

Returning to the Black Ops arm of the franchise doesn’t seem like a far-fetched move for Activision – the last time we saw a Black Ops title was 2015 with Black Ops 3. Overall, Black Ops 3 was a well-received title from fans and critics alike, with large amounts of praise being directed towards the game’s multiplayer mode in particular.

What we'd like to see

A Switch version

At the moment, it kind of feels like Switch port rumors float around every single game before the developers have to come out and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Given Activision hasn’t done this yet for Call of Duty 2018, we feel like we can say we’d really quite like to see a Switch port.

There hasn’t been a Call of Duty game on a Nintendo console since Call of Duty: Ghosts hit the Wii U in 2013. That’s a big gap and though the Switch is nowhere near as powerful as the latest consoles, we’re sure it could handle a new Call of Duty game in some form or another.

When Activision confirmed that there would indeed be a Black Ops 4 released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC, it made no mention of a Nintendo Switch version and declined to comment on such a release. We're taking that to mean that there's still a possibility.

A good campaign mode

Though Black Ops 3 had a fantastic multiplayer mode, its main campaign left something to be desired. We’d love to see Black Ops 4 remedy that with an engaging story and an interesting cast of characters.

We know it can be done – Black Ops 2 had a perfectly enjoyable campaign with really interesting multiple endings. We don’t need to see Black Ops 4 go for a carbon copy approach, but we wouldn’t object to an emotionally engaging single-play story mode.

Zombies

Zombies mode is pretty much a staple of the Call of Duty franchise at this point and naturally we’d love to see it return. It’s a mode that’s only really improved over the years and Black Ops 3 totally nailed it but we’d like Black Ops 4 to do even better.

A little innovation certainly doesn’t hurt and we definitely wouldn’t object to some new features in a formula that’s tried, tested and beginning to tire.