The Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E.) is launching a bundle on November 14 in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and in Call of Duty: Warzone at Season 1 launch.
The launch bundle is timed with the launch of Activision’s big release, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
The Call of Duty Endowment Legacy: Tracer Pack honors Danielle Green, U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart Recipient, and shares her incredible story of resilience and success following her injury sustained in combat.
Game publisher Activision said that 100% of Activision’s net proceeds from the pack will go directly to the Call of Duty Endowment to help place veterans in meaningful employment.
Back at Call of Duty Next, Helene Imperiale, senior director of the Call of Duty Endowment and corporate social responsibility at Activision, said in a press briefing that the mission of the endowment was founded to give meaningfully back to real-life heroes who are inspirational.
She said that since 2009, the endowment has placed more than 150,000 veterans into high-quality jobs and generated $9 billion in first-year salaries alone.
“But we couldn’t do this without the Call of Duty community,” Imperiale said.
Each year, the endowment launches a new in-game pack, celebrating the service of a deserving veteran while promoting the mission of the endowment.
“Especially in the times we’re living in right now, it’s nice to have something that everyone can kind of get behind, and I think they see that,” said Dan Goldenberg, president of the Call of Duty Endowment, in an interview with GamesBeat. “It’s not just a business opportunity. They have real concern for vets and jobs, and they all have programs to help with that. So, it’s consistent with their values as a company and ours.”
Honoring Danielle Green
Danielle Green, a U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, partnered with the endowment to develop a Call of Duty Endowment Legacy: Tracer Pack for Black Ops 7.
Green said at Call of Duty Next that it’s important to understand that women have served as combat veterans and it’s important to remember and honor their service. She’s a native of Chicago. She was a basketball player and received a scholarship to play at the University of Notre Dame. Her college team number was 12, and so that appears on her character.
She noted she started out poorly at first, but by the time she graduated, she was the 16th all-time leading scorer at the university. And she was the first to graduate from college in her family. She became a school teacher but something was absent. At age 25, she joined the U.S. Army.
“I raised my right hand to protect and defend our Constitution against foreign and domestic terrorists or enemies,” she said.
Fifteen months after enlisting, on May 25, 2004, she was on a rooftop in Baghdad, Iraq, on patrol. A rocket-propelled grenade landed near her and took off her left arm.
“I thought I was going to die. When I realized that I wasn’t going to die, I remember looking up in the heavens and I said a prayer. I said, ‘God, I want to live, and I want to be able to tell my story.'”
She added, “And here I am with you guys right now today, telling you I’m alive. And I’m telling my story.”
She said her fellow soldiers retrieved her arm in the dirt and found her wedding rings. That’s why her character has a purple ring. She recovered, went back to school, became a therapist and worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Pat Tillman Foundation found out about what she was doing for veterans in the community, and they awarded her the 2015 Pat Tillman Award for service. She has a prosthetic arm now, and show noted that this year she summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
“I still want to crusade to show people that no matter what life throws at you, you are never broken,” she said. “You are never broken. I am never broken.”
C.O.D.E. Bowl
Green’s pack follows on the publicity around the C.O.D.E. Bowl event that aired at the Call of Duty Next reveal event on September 30.
Millions of people watch the C.O.D.E. Bowl now, with the help of streamers who share it on social media.
Speaking of Green, Goldenberg said, “She is the central character in the pack. She will be profiled prominently in the pack and she was involved in the design. There are homages to her service, like the purple highlights as an allusion to her Purple Heart.”
Open Bionics provided Green with her prosthetic arm.
Goldenberg said there are roughly 18 million veterans in the U.S., but that number is declining every day as the World War II and Korean War generation is dying. But the children of those families carry on the awareness of the military.
Goldenberg said there are stereotypes about veterans that have prevented them from getting good work. And to counter that, the endowment tries to find high-paying jobs for veterans.
As for the gamers, Goldenberg said, “I think it makes people good, a little better about their play, when they’re buying packs for this cause. It’s a morale boost.”
USAA support
USAA, (United Services Automobile Association), is a financial services firm that serves the active duty, retired, and honorably separated military personnel.
Krissy Gorsuch, director of sponsorships for USAA, said at the Call of Duty Next event in an interview with GamesBeat that the company found Call of Duty and its C.O.D.E. Bowl is a great way to meet the military community where it is. USAA partnered five years ago with the C.O.D.E. Bowl, which was held in the summer and aired during Call of Duty Next.
Christian Bove, communications director for USAA, said USAA’s mission is to support the financial wellness of the military community and it was started over 100 years ago for that purpose. It is both a bank and an insurance company.
“The endowment and USA have a shared mission and helping veterans find meaningful careers after they transition out of the military, which can be challenging, so providing the resources to help them succeed in that is a big priority for both the endowment and for USAA,” Gorsuch said. “That synergy has made the partnership really successful, and something like C.O.D.E. Bowl, with all the energy and excitement around the competition, really helps generate some additional awareness for the work that they’re doing to place veterans and meaningful careers.”
The numbers generated by the endowment are pretty phenomenal. About one in four employees of USAA is either a veteran or a military spouse. Almost 70% of Americans play video games daily, and that percentage is higher among the military community, which uses it as a way to connect with friends and family back home.
“Gaming is an excellent way to reach the military community and show how we can support them,” Gorsuch said.
This year, the Britis Royal Air Force won the C.O.D.E. Bowl for the second year in a row — the only team to have a repeat win so far.
Goldenberg said that USAA has been a sponsor of the bowl since the beginning in 2019. Now the event is in its sixth iteration. Other sponsors include Corsair, Gillette, Lyft, Monster and Pilot.
“Now it’s a tradition in the military,” Goldenberg said.