The biggest publisher in the video game industry wasn’t at Donald Trump’s video game summit Thursday. Instead, it was busy launching the marketing campaign for its next Call of Duty game.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 rolled out a teaser trailer for a more thorough reveal, which will come in May. The campaign comes as segments of previous Call of Duty games were included in a montage reel of video game violence the White House reportedly showed at the meeting and subsequently released on YouTube (without, it’s worth noting, putting an age restriction on the video that contains harsh language and violence).
Activision, who apparently chose to rely on the ESA, the industry’s trade group, to protect its interests at the Trump meeting, didn’t release any real details about the game, but the teaser trailer shows much of what the series is known for—from fast-paced action to close-quarter kills to zombie soldiers.
Trump and Call of Duty are hardly strangers. In January, the president announced the sale of F-52 fighter jets to Norway in a press conference with that country’s prime minister, Erna Solberg. Problem is: the F-52 is a fictional jet that only exists in the video game series.
Call of Duty is the industry’s top franchise and each year’s installment is typically the best-selling title of the year. 2017’s Call of Duty WWII racked up sales of over $1 billion in just over a month. And the Black Ops subset of the series has historically been a top seller.
Activision’s hoping that streak stays alive with the release of Black Ops 4, which hits shelves Oct. 12, roughly a month earlier than Call of Duty games typically are released. This holiday season is expected to be an especially competitive one, especially with the looming launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 (from the makers of Grand Theft Auto) due Oct. 26.
