Call of Duty Fans Are Squinting at Microsoft’s Direct Showcase Tease, Believe It Hides Black Ops V

ign.com:

This week, Microsoft announced the timing of its Xbox showcase event in June as well as a follow-up Direct for a mystery game that looks like a clear tease for the next Call of Duty.

This year’s mainline Call of Duty is reportedly a Treyarch-developed Black Ops game set in the Gulf War. Some had even thought it might be called Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War, following the naming convention set out by the previous Black Ops game, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.

However, following Microsoft’s tease, eagle-eyed Call of Duty fans are giving the image included the zoom and enhance treatment, and believe the redacted section conceals the words Call of Duty Black Ops V.

We’re going to be talking about games of course

Tune in to the Xbox Games Showcase followed by [REDACTED] Direct on Sunday, June 9 @ 10am PT: https://t.co/z78G8h75r2 | #XboxShowcase pic.twitter.com/XgOGJy2gLv

As many fans have pointed out, you can almost make out the ‘OPS’ from Black Ops in the redacted section in the bottom of the image. The suggestion is the spacing only makes sense if the words are ‘Black Ops V’, not ‘Gulf War.’

Why the V, specifically? It’s all in the pixels, fans believe. Actually, the single pixel to the right of the blacked out part of the image. Would it be more of a bar if it concealed a ‘5’ than a ‘V’? Some fans believe so.

Black Ops V only seems suitable ;) https://t.co/ggCMOJbmSk pic.twitter.com/cHs7DbBBWL

Here’s some better versions made by @omgFawzi that give a better look at what BO5’s teaser should look like uncensored pic.twitter.com/m8OP8vy3IP

If the game is called Black Ops V, that would track with the roman numeral system used for previous Black Ops games (bizarrely, Activision went with Black Ops IIII for the fourth game in the series, as opposed to IV). Black Ops V would also be a somewhat puzzling choice given it wouldn’t actually be the fifth mainline Black Ops game, but the sixth. Perhaps Activision wants to lean more on the idea of this new Black Ops being a fully-fledged