Call of Duty 2024 Reveal Could Be Happening Sooner Than Expected

The 2024 Call of Duty game may receive a reveal as early as this month, some newly emerged evidence suggests. The upcoming title is expected to be another entry in the Call of Duty: Black Ops series.

New installments in Activision’s hit FPS franchise have historically been treated to summer reveals. This tradition continued with the latest entry in the series, as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was officially announced in August 2023.

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Every Call of Duty 2024 Rumor and Leak Explained

Attention is starting to turn to the 2024 entry for Call of Duty, and there are already a lot of rumors and leaks that are worth exploring.

Call of Duty ‘Cerberus’ Reveal Evidence Found in Modern Warfare 3

But the 2024 game, rumored to be titled Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War, may break with that pattern. That’s according to some newly datamined evidence found in the latest version of Modern Warfare 3, which reportedly contains multiple references to “s3_cerberus_reveal.” The first part of that designation ostensibly refers to the newly started Modern Warfare 3 Season 3, while the middle portion is believed to be the codename of the 2024 Call of Duty entry.

This find alone doesn’t necessarily point to a May 2024 reveal for Black Ops Gulf War, as it merely places it sometime during the ongoing Season 3, which is expected to run for between two and three months. However, multiple early April reports have suggested that this year’s Call of Duty will be featured at the next Xbox Games Showcase, but unveiled beforehand. With that event taking place on June 9, a May or early June announcement is looking plausible. Either scenario would see the game revealed a bit earlier than expected, based on historical precedent.

Potential Early Reveal of Black Ops Gulf War Aligns With Its Development Timeline

Black Ops Gulf War will be the first Call of Duty title to be unveiled following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was completed in October 2023. But that ownership change would ostensibly be unrelated to this potential deviation from the series’ standard announcement schedule. A more likely explanation for why Activision might already have something to showcase in spring instead of waiting until summer is that the 2024 Call of Duty reportedly had an extra year of development compared to most other contemporary entries in the series.

Specifically, the project is understood to have been initially targeting a fall 2023 release. Its timeline changed early on during development, with Activision deciding to delay Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War no later than February 2022, as originally reported by industry insider Tom Henderson. If Treyarch has indeed been working on its next FPS for over three years by now, the notion of that game being announced a bit earlier than the series’ typical summer reveal window would not be outside the realm of possibility.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a series of Call of Duty games developed by Treyarch. The series began in 2008 with Call of Duty: World at War, which acted as a prologue to the series, and there have been a further five games since. 

Along with the change in development studios, the Black Ops series also differentiates itself from the other Call of Duty games by having a separate timeline, different weapons, and covert operation missions.