Press Release Details

With More than 200 Million Players to date, The Black Ops Series Returns with All-New Blockbuster October 12^th

Call of Duty Partners with Blizzard Entertainment to Bring Black Ops 4 to Battle.net

Pre-Order Now and Receive Access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Beta

Global Livestream Community Event Caps Biggest Call of Duty Reveal Ever

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2018-- It’s time to soldier up because Black Ops is back! The series which has become the most played in Call of Duty® history as well as a cultural phenomenon around the globe returns October 12^th with the release of Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4, a gritty, grounded, all-out combat experience. Black Ops 4 raises the bar for Multiplayer mode that increases tactical gameplay and player choice, along with the biggest Zombies offering ever with three full experiences at launch, and Blackout, where the Black Ops universe comes to life in a massive battle royale experience featuring iconic characters and locations from all four Black Ops games in a one-of-a-kind offering that is uniquely Black Ops. Published by Activision and developed by award-winning studio Treyarch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 transforms the established universe played by hundreds of millions of fans with the largest gameplay experience ever created in the series.

“Black Ops 4 gives our community more ways to have fun with their friends than anything Treyarch has ever created and introduces meaningful innovations to every element of the game, including next level tactical team-based multiplayer, the biggest zombies offering yet and Blackout, where the largest map in Call of Duty history brings together the rich universe of Black Ops,” said Rob Kostich, EVP and GM, Call of Duty. “More than 200 million players have called Black Ops home, and they’ve played for more than 15 billion hours. This is an incredible community that has inspired the development team to take their innovative gameplay design to new heights.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 12^th. Fans can pre-order now and get access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Beta*. Black Ops 4 for thePC delivers a fully-optimized experience, which for the first time in Call of Duty’s history will be available exclusively on Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s online gaming service.

The game was revealed earlier today in a livestreamed community event broadcast worldwide across 10 languages, as Activision and Treyarch unveiled an unprecedented first look along with a trove of detailed game information.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 features gritty, grounded combat, along with new levels of customization and tactical gameplay, and a variety of new weaponry, maps and modes for the ultimate Black Ops multiplayer experience. The game features the return of the iconic Pick 10 system, along with a series of innovations in weapon controls, combat flow, health regeneration, and player movement. Black Ops 4 goes deeper than ever before into the fiction of multiplayer, where players will explore the world of Specialists – who they are, why they exist, and what battles they fight together – while mastering their gameplay through solo and multiplayer combat experiences. Black Ops 4 features a combination of new and returning Specialists, each with their own unique weapons, equipment and playstyles. Players will be powerful alone, but devastating as a team working together.

“Black Ops 4 is by far the most ambitious title our team has ever created,” said Dan Bunting, Co-Studio Head, Treyarch. “At its core Black Ops has always been about challenging convention and boldly taking our gameplay in new directions. With Black Ops 4, we’ve designed an experience for all play styles and skill levels from casual to competitive. It brings a layer of tactical depth that rewards players for mastery, and just feels so good to play.”

Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the original Call of Duty Zombies, Black Ops 4 also debuts an entirely new and unprecedented Zombies experience that’s the biggest Day One offering in franchise history – with three fully-featured Zombies experiences at launch – IX, Voyage of Despair and Blood of the Dead. With immersive new adventures, a brand new cast of characters and a nefarious new enemy, Black Ops 4Zombies will feature the deep gameplay and easter eggs that the rabid community of fans devours. It also includes the most customizable action to date, new systems for creating and completing community challenges, and social systems designed to connect players. Black Ops 4 also reintroduces difficulty levels and an in-game tutorial to onboard new players to the Zombies universe, while giving hardcore players the option of ratcheting up the challenge. Additionally, Zombie Rush is a brand new mode that streamlines the gameplay experience, introducing enticing new challenges to grizzled veterans, while creating a whole new tempo of gameplay for newcomers.

In addition to unveiling Multiplayer and Zombies in today’s world premiere, the team also introduced Blackout – the new battle royale-style experience that combines Black Ops’ signature fast, fluid, guns-up combat, with fierce new levels of survival competition across iconic Black Ops settings re-imagined at a colossal scale. Blackout is an experience unlike any other game or mode in Call of Duty history, where players will have to scavenge, strategize, compete and survive to win. Featuring the largest map ever built in Call of Duty – 1,500 times bigger than Nuketown – Blackout thrusts players into a collision course as they play as classic characters spanning the history of the Black Ops series including the original Call of Duty Zombies Origins cast. Battling solo or in teams, players will engage in diverse combat complete with ground, air and sea vehicles across a gamespace unlike anything ever in Call of Duty. Players will encounter fan-favorite Black Ops map locations and call upon a massive arsenal of Black Ops weaponry and equipment as the winner-takes-all action creates a new way to play Call of Duty.

“The Black Ops community means everything to us, so we knew in order to deliver something really special for our fans like Blackout, with the biggest map we’ve ever created in Call of Duty, we had to push ourselves and our tech to the absolute limits,” said Mark Gordon, Co-Studio Head, Treyarch. “The same goes for our PC community. They have inspired and fueled us to set a new standard on PC across every aspect from dedicated servers and security to full optimization and polish that’s worthy of both Black Ops and Battle.net.”

For the PC, Treyarch is co-developing with Beenox, who together are working closely with Blizzard to optimize Black Ops 4 for Battle.net. Black Ops 4 represents the largest development team assembled for a PC title in the series. Black Ops 4 on PC will have uncapped framerate, 4K resolution and HDR, support for ultra-wide monitors and the ability for players to extensively customize the performance and visual quality for their specific hardware. In addition, players will be able to select from pre-set control options, including options for left-handed players, or fully customize the keyboard and mouse controls to their preference. In addition, Treyarch and Beenox worked closely with the team at Blizzard to incorporate Battle.net’s social systems, security, and server stability into Black Ops 4 to prepare for the release on Battle.net on October 12^th.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is published by Activision, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), and developed by Treyarch with additional development support from Raven Software and PC development with Beenox. For more information and the latest intel check out: www.callofduty.com, www.youtube.com/callofduty and follow @Treyarch and @CallofDuty on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook.

About Treyarch

Treyarch is an award-winning video game studio, driven by the desire to create epic gameplay experiences that are enjoyed by as many video game fans as possible. It is an approach that has helped to make the studio behind the Call of Duty: Black Ops series of games, an industry-leading developer. Call of Duty: Black Ops set an entertainment launch opening record upon its release in 2010 and continues to be one of the best-selling games of all time, according to NPD and GfK Chart-Track; Call of Duty: Black Ops II set world-wide launch day records; and the studio’s most recent Call of Duty: Black Ops III held the biggest entertainment opening weekend of 2015, and was the #1 console game globally for the calendar year. Additionally, Treyarch is the birthplace of Call of Duty’s Zombies. Treyarch is wholly owned by Activision.

About Blizzard Entertainment

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®, Overwatch®, the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, and the multi-franchise Heroes of the Storm®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment's track record includes twenty-one #1 games† and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online gaming service is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

About Activision

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision is a leading global producer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Activision maintains operations throughout the world and is a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), an S&P 500 company. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com or by following @Activision.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the expected release date, pre-orders, features, functionality and gameplay of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard's most recent annual report on Form 10K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

*Actual platform availability and launch date(s) subject to change. Beta may begin on different dates for each platform. See www.callofduty.com/beta for more details. Minimum Beta duration is 3 days. Limited time only, while beta codes last, at participating retailers. Internet connection required.

†Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners.

ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY, and CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

"PlayStation" is a registered trademark and "PS4" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180517005775/en/

Source: Activision Publishing, Inc.

Activision
Kelvin Liu, 310-255-2213
Senior Manager, Public Relations
kelvin.liu@activision.com