Despite the presence of a space satellite and combat in the final frontier in the most recent trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts’ single-player campaign, Activision community manager Dan Amrich maintains that the game – and series – remains in the realm of plausibility.
In his blog, Amrich stated that, “Telephone poles from space? It’s actually more science than science fiction. The concept of kinetic bombardment – nicknamed in the science and defense communities as ‘Rods from God‘ – has been used in sci-fi stories for years by authors including Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Neal Stephenson, but it’s also been seriously considered by the United States Air Force as a military strike that could create mass devastation without nuclear fallout.
“In fact, long after Infinity Ward had committed to the concept for Ghosts, a thread about the USAF’s Project Thor showed up on Reddit in May of this year, which simultaneously made people involved in CoD feel good about their game’s fiction and a bit worried that the ‘catastrophic event’ might leak.
“This was an eerie echo of last year, when President Obama started talking about rare earth minerals two months before Treyarch revealed it was playing a role in the story of Black Ops II. Say what you will about its over-the-top gameplay and action-movie attitude, but Call of Duty still plays in the realm of plausibility.”
Call of Duty: Ghosts releases on November 5th worldwide, with the Xbox One and PS4 versions launching with their respective consoles.