Activision Blizzard and its Treyarch game studio showed off a trailer today for its next installment in the Call of Duty series. The video captures a minute and 43 seconds of footage, but it’s enough to show that the company is quite serious about keeping this blockbuster property going.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops game is being built by Treyarch and will be released on November 9 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PC. The trailer is a one more part of a long tease that will continue at next month’s E3 game show in Los Angeles.
Hardcore gamers are quite curious about the franchise, given the turmoil that erupted in March between Activision Blizzard and the co-founders of its Infinity Ward studio, which made the Call of Duty Modern Warfare games. Activision Blizzard fired the co-founders over insubordination and trying to start a new game studio. Now they’re all locked in litigation.
Treyarch, however, stayed out of that fight. Also owned by Activision Blizzard, Treyarch has been making Call of Duty games set in World War II. The last game, Call of Duty World at War, was a blockbuster and it helped Treyarch move out of the shadow of Infinity Ward. The new trailer shows a lot of innovative weapons such as explosive crossbow bolts, shotguns with flaming ammunition, Huey helicopters and an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. The setting also includes Vietnam and other places that figured in the Cold War. The trailer shows that Treyarch is intent on delivering a riveting experience that is worthy of the Call of Duty name.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSfWHD8tZQY&w=640&h=385]