A report yesterday revealed that the next Call of Duty title would be revealed soon, ahead of E3, and it was later confirmed that the game would be revealed this Saturday. But despite Activision building up to the reveal, they have revealed the first trailer for the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

This video, too, talks about PMCs and also about the privatisation of war. It’s all very interesting, and the hints dropped here and the exact opposite of subtle. In all honesty, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is looking amazing, something on the lines of the first teaser image that was leaked last week.

A new teaser website for the next CoD game has been put up by Activision. When you click on that link, you’ll see four distinct white dots on the page while it loads. And if you click on those dots, they lead you to these three articles. They’re all articles talking about private military companies (or mercenaries, in layman terms). It’s a pretty clear hint.

We’ll be looking forward to the official reveal till next Wednesday. We’ll keep you updated too, so stay tuned.

After revealing the first image for the game – which was essentially a “real time” character close up of some dude’s face – Sledgehammer Games now has a countdown site for its Call of Duty title. Tentatively titled Call of Duty 2014 but rumoured to be Modern Warfare 4, it will apparently be revealed after 2 days and 11 hours as of this writing on May 4th. Check out the site here, which has the Call of Duty name along with “New Era”.

We highly doubt that Call of Duty: New Era will end up being the actual name of the game though. What we do know is that Sledgehammer is focused on the PS4 and Xbox One with the next Call of Duty, which indicates that there will finally be a significant bump in the visuals after so long. Hopefully it’ll look awesome in real-time and there’s no AI dog companion this time around.

Are you excited for the reveal of the next Call of Duty? Let us know in the comments.

Update: We also have the first in-game screenshot the next Call of Duty, courtesy GameInformer.

Activision may create some over the top and altogether silly TV commercials for the Call of Duty franchise but as vice president of global marketing Jonathan Anastas told [a]list Daily, “If you want to sell 10 million or more copies of a console game, TV is not going away yet.”

It’s more about catering to the widest demographic though. “At that point, you’re breaking into the ‘blockbuster’ game buyer, who may only buy one or two games a year and is not a deep follower of the genre or your brand. They may buy Halo in 2012 and GTA in 2013 and play Words With Friends in-between the two when not watching Netflix or playing Minecraft. I’m not going to convert that buyer on my Twitter feed.”

Social media is important though when it comes to reaching audiences beyond the casual gamer who only picks up a few titles a year. “Brands can build, aggregate and engage their own audiences, often with greater reach than the old media third parties.” Of course, targeting a specific niche is tough due to the fragmentation of the Internet as a whole.

Activision is currently gearing up to reveal a new Call of Duty title developed by Sledgehammer Games. Stay tuned for more details.

According to reports on PSU, Activision will be announcing the newest Call of Duty game, the series’ annual installment for 2014, in May itself, before E3. But Activision will be following up the announcement with more details and footage of the game (as always) when E3 comes in June.

The project is currently codenamed BlackSmith. We don’t know yet if it will be this game, or Sledgehammer’s Modern Warfare 4 (which will be the last game in the Modern Warfare series) that will be announcing this year, but since they’re going to talk about it at E3, we’re assuming it will be this one.

What would you like to see in the newest CoD game? Would you rather that it were a sequel to one of the two CoD sub-franchises in the running right now, or would you like to see the beginning of a new CoD story? Tell us in your comments, and stay tuned for more coverage.

Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty 2014, which may or may not be Modern Warfare 4 according to recent rumours, has received its first image. Revealed at last month’s GDC (recently revealed by IGN), it apparently showcases “actual in-game characters” according to the developer.

Call of Duty 2014’s development is primarily geared towards the Xbox One and PS4 (though it’s suggested that it will also be out on Xbox 360 and PS3), and many insiders have been claiming that the game’s visuals are vastly improved over Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. Again, we’ll need to wait till the game is officially revealed – which is likely to happen either next month or at E3 2014 – but thus far, it doesn’t look half bad. It’s a definite improvement over Ghosts for sure.

What are your thoughts on the game, based on the one single solitary image we have to go off of? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

After establishing a solid franchise in the gaming world with its splendid backdrops and intense characters, Activision had had a cult following of its own. But they took their freedom to experiment too far. The latest experiment was Call of Duty: Ghosts and it is one of the most horrendous things that mankind has ever conceived. But as it is with humans these days, you either strive long enough to better yourself, or you give it to someone else.

To buy time for Treyarch and Infinity Ward, Activision has decided to hand the baton to Sledgehammer Games. The American video developers have shown some vehement enthusiasm for the new title and promised a game on another level by saying that Call of Duty 2014 is the “Most ambitious, Most creative game we’ve ever made.”. How so? We know not. But how they CAN make the make really live up to its predecessors’ reputation is by considering the following.

15. Improving the graphics

Now this is not a necessity at all. Neither am I big fan of always getting the best of visuals in every game. But you got to keep up with times. The Modern Warfare games had been using the uber old modified versions of the the IW engine based on the id Tech 3. Now that hasn’t been much of a sore point while playing the games. But not seeing anything in Ghosts was what irked me. It wouldn’t have, if the game were anywhere near as good as the 2nd Call of Duty.

What my point is, that it would do good to the Call of Duty series if they include better ambient occlusion, greater depth of field, focus on detailing and improve the MSAA and we’d be ever grateful if they could use a better graphics engine to suit the requirements for the same.