clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The next Call of Duty may take place in China, Japan and Afghanistan

The next Call of Duty may be a game set in 2027, centered around a conflict with China.

COD Map
COD Map

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

The next Call of Duty, likely a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops, may include key moments in China, Japan and Afghanistan according to the latest clues unveiled on the official Call of Duty website and unraveled by fans of the series.

Three of the fifteen static-filled boxes on the Activision website now show clues for the game. The first clue, unveiled two days ago, lead browsers to a video showing a machine-gun quadrotor in action along with a message that the near-future military device may be in the next Call of Duty. It also hinted that the game may be set 10 to 15 years in the future. (You can see details on the making of the quadrotor, as well as some possible in-game images here.)

Black-ops-2-screenshot-1__1_

Yesterday, a box showing the word Tacitus unveiled itself. Some believe that the word refers to the Roman senator and historian and his writings about an eclipse. Which could reaffirm a Nov. 13 release date, a day that coincides with an eclipse this year. Others believe the name is a reference to the lunar impact crater of the same name, and a hint at a Zombie-mode map setting.

This morning a set of numbers and letters appeared in a third box. Readers over on the official forums used a telephone keypad and geocode decoder to decipher the alphanumeric text and convert it into five settings on a map: one in Afghanistan, one in Japan, one in South Korea and two in China.

Combing the clues released so far, it appears that the next Call of Duty will be a Black Ops game that takes place roughly in the year 2027 and includes some sort of Asian conflict, perhaps centered around China. A future China conflict sounds like the sort of ripped-from-the-future-headlines approach that might be appealing to a developer whose last Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, leaned heavily on the fictionalization of historic events.

We're sure to find out much more between now and the official May 2 reveal, as the rest of those 15 boxes surface between now, and I would assume, then.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Patch Notes

A weekly roundup of the best things from Polygon