Brazilian YouTuber ‘Hayashii’ has uploaded images of a mysterious black box sent to him by Activison, while other Call of Duty partners are thought to have received them too. The boxes currently cannot be opened until August 10.
We’re now well past due for an announcement on this year’s Call of Duty instalment, but it appears like the waiting may finally be over in just a few more days. Some have suggested that the reveal of Call of Duty 2020 had been delayed in order to give Warzone more space to breathe, although the lack of physical events may also have played a part in pushing back Activision’s schedule. With Season 5 out in the wild, Activision may now look to move forward.
It might also be that with less run up between the initial reveal and the full release, Activision is trying to ramp up promotion with an attempt to go viral. As interest around these black boxes grows, the strategy appears to be working.
While we don’t know what’s in the box yet, we do know that it’s a mammoth sized crate. Some have joked that it contains the inevitably massive download for the game, but it likely has a set of branded goodies, merchandise and general tie ins for the game, including a reveal of the 2020 title.
Unfortunately, this reveal has probably already been blown. A few weeks ago, a packet of Doritos with the new logo, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, leaked, meaning the title and theme of the game are already out in the wild. Had this year’s Call of Duty been revealed on a typical schedule, the Doritos bag would have arrived right on time. As it stands, someone likely forgot to tell the crisp manufacturers about the delay.
Elsewhere, several Call of Duty 2020 map names have been found by dataminers in The Red Door alpha. These include ‘Miami’, ‘Moscow’, ‘Satellite’, and ‘KGB’, which each lend credence to the Cold War setting.
Brazilian YouTuber Hayashii received a black box from activision. He can only open august 10 from modernwarfare
The box itself is wooden, sealed with a rotary combination lock, and imprinted with a code on top. On August 10 at 12:00 EDT (9:00 PDT/16:00 GMT), everyone who received a code will be sent the combination, and will be able to finally see inside.
Call of Duty is typically a game which does a good enough job of selling itself, but in trying to convince players to jump from Modern Warfare and Warzone, it seems like Activision is pulling out all the stops.