Call of Duty: Vanguard

Call of Duty: Vanguard delves into the birth of special forces in WWII

Activision and Sledgehammer Games are unveiling a well-known secret: Call of Duty: Vanguard. The game is the next installment of the Call of Duty series that has sold more than 400 million copies to date. It will take players back to World War II and weave a global story about the birth of the special forces.

The narrative and gameplay will feel familiar to fans like me, who have played every single Call of Duty game since the franchise’s 2002 debut. It was exciting to see it revealed inside Call of Duty: Warzone, the ever-present battle royale mode. And I am a big history buff and so I’m happy to see the franchise return to a period that is so much more grounded in history. And I’m glad to see it zero in on lesser-known parts of the historical record that seem more important by today’s environment, as special forces has become so much more visible now.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.