Call of Duty to reportedly dip toes back into World War II roots this year

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

The Call of Duty franchise is reportedly planning a return to form, with this year's sequel rumored to take place in a World War II setting. Eurogamer reports that it has confirmed with its sources that the latest entry in the series will simply be titled Call of Duty: WW2. That follows the leak of alleged images that pointed to the same conclusion by YouTube channel The FamilyVideoGamers earlier in March.

This would mark Call of Duty's first venture back to a World War II setting since 2008. And if true, this certainly jives with comments from an Activision earnings call earlier this year in which the company said it would be taking the series "back to its roots" with "traditional combat" in 2017.

In the rotating cast of Call of Duty developers, Sledgehammer Games has taken on development responsibilities for this year's title. WW2 will follow on from the studio's last Call of Duty entry, 2014's Advanced Warfare.

The move back to World War II could be a reaction to a somewhat poorer reception of last year's futuristic Infinite Warfare title. The Battlefield series likewise took a step back with its last title, which transported players back to the battlefields of World War I.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

17 Comments
  • I'm so all over this if it happens. Loved C.O.D until they started the whole jet packs and exo skeleton rubbish.
  • Same. They could have even made a game set in the future. Just make it so everyone stays on the ground.
  • This has my interest.  I have always felt COD's WWII setting was best.
  • At last, going back I'm in again.
  • This year's version did stink.
  • The last 7 years of COD has been bad. Last great COD was Call of Duty 4, and before that, Call of Duty 2. After COD 4, the perks and kill streaks got out of hand and altered the game too much, lack of dedicated servers and mod support destroyed the community, and later on exoskeletons and jump packs tried to copy titanfall or halo. COD needs to go back to being a skilled shooter!
  • Interestingly, I really enjoyed infinite warfare, particularly the campaign gameplay and story, didn't really mind the whole futuristic space stuff. In any case though, let's see how this turns out, COD usually has really great gameplay anyhow :-)
  • I like WW2 as a setting. However, I find more important if they made Call of Duty a game about soldiers, like it was before Modern Warfare II transformed it in a game about action heroes.
  • Yahoo good old days return.
  • Always good to kill nazis.  I never got the trend toward futuristic warfare.  I would still be ok with some Korea and Vietnam war stories.
  • Absolutely!!!!!! Vietnam or Korea would be outstanding settings. I'd love that.
  • This remind me of Wolfeinstein the new order.
  • If this is true, this will be my first COD since MW3 or BO1. hopefully it's good though.
  • I quit buying COD games after they started the jet pack, wall running and super hero skills crap. I'll come back for this. Let's see if the new COD kiddies embrace it or complain because it's missing the unrealistic crap.
  • I really hope so. And I hope it's not a piece of sh*t for single players like Battlefield 1 is. The last CoD I played was WaW. After that I dropped them as I hate pseudo-futuristic games (Halo-style).
  • Oh *******! Right, I won't be buying this then. Sick and tired of seeing WW2 era - they were terrible. Prefer the current version of cod.
  • LOL gotta love the good old copy what the other guys are doing. Hey no one liked our futuristic crap, oh and look everyone loves Battlefield 1.    Copy that.