Call of Duty 2024 is Black Ops Gulf War, set during 1990s with focus on CIA, reports indicate

Call of Duty's annual 2024 release will be centered on the Gulf War, sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden.

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The next Call of Duty game will take place in the 1990s during the Gulf War, new reports indicate. COD 2024 is part of the Black Ops sub-series and has been in development by Treyarch for the past 4 years--the only game in the entire franchise to have such a long timetable according to Charlie Intel.

Info on Black Ops Gulf War was originally discovered in a 2022 content leak at Activision, where the game was mentioned under the codename Cerberus. A picture of an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber was also part of the leaks, further lending credence to the Gulf War setting. U.S. forces used F-117 Nighthawks during the airstrike campaigns of Operation Desert Storm.

Sources tell Windows Central that Black Ops Gulf War will focus on the CIA, continuing the Black Ops series' penchant for espionage and the double-dealings of world powers. The game may take a more subtle approach and explore multiple sides of the conflict.

Apart from the game details, Activision is said to pursue a more aggressive pre-order model that offers extensive early access periods for Gulf War content. This trend isn't new for Call of Duty--the franchise has been offering early beta access for pre-orderers for years now--however this time it looks like gamers who pre-order Blops Gulf War will get days or even multiple weeks worth of early playtime in the upcoming zombies mode.

The rationale for this bonus could be two-fold: 1) Activision could still monetize players during the early access period by switching on the zombies in-game store so that it's ready for early access, unlike campaign, which is fixed and set in stone without monetization; and 2) Activision could be wanting to continue momentum from Modern Warfare 3's popular and celebrated new MW Zombies mode (MWZ is the most popular 'third mode' out of the Modern Warfare trilogy).

Activision has been acquired by Microsoft's Xbox games division, but will remain its own operating branch as a limited-integrated company. It will also be interesting to see how Black Ops Gulf War aka Cerberus fits into the Xbox Game Pass business model.