'Call of Duty Online' announced, targeting Asian market

Call of Duty Online announced by Tencent

Activision and China-based games giant Tencent Holdings Limited announced today Call of Duty Online, a free-to-play massively multiplayer game that will target the Asian market.

As reported by Fusible, in late June Activision registered 17 new China-related domain names including BlackOpsChina.com and CallofDutyChina.com, now believed to be in preparation for the announcement.

Tencent later released a teaser website with the oddly meme-friendly URL omg.qq.com and countdown clock scheduled to reveal a "mystery game" today.

"We are thrilled to work with the world's premiere game developer and publisher to bring this much-awaited title to Chinese game players. We believe Call of Duty Online will attract tens of millions of loyal fans in China, and our game platform and operational expertise to run massive multi-player online games can provide strong support to deliver the immersive and highly interactive game experience to game players in China," said Martin Lau, President of Tencent.

Call of Duty Online will allow users to personalize weapons, characters, and equipment. Using an in-game store, players can enhance weapons, gears, and perks for the Chinese market. In addition it will include a variety of game modes and maps, as well as an original story told through Special Operation missions based on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare universe.

Tencent recently received a minority stake in Gears of War developer Epic Games. The Western company will work alongside Tencent to work out ways to maximize sales in Asia and China.