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Treyarch video celebrates 10 years since COD: Black Ops reveal

The Call of Duty developer posted to their website a recap looking at the journey that started a decade ago.

Donovan Erskine

May 18, 2020 10:30 AM

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Black Ops has become one of the most iconic subtitles in modern gaming. However, it feels like just yesterday that “Black Ops” was a new and unproven direction for the biggest FPS franchise in the world to take. It was on May 18, 2010 that Treyarch studios unveiled Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Coming off the heels of the bonafide classic Modern Warfare 2, expectations for the next Call of Duty game were astronomical. Treyarch made a blog post on its website, celebrating a decade since they first revealed Black Ops to the world. In the post, the company discusses how the work done in 2008’s World at War set the stage for them to really up the ante with Black Ops. This includes the fully-fleshed out zombies game mode, a highlight of the 2010 release.

One of the most fascinating parts of the Call of Duty: Black Ops story was its revisionist history, taking real world events and turning them on their head. “We went deep into the shadows: Call of Duty: Black Ops was the history you thought you knew. It was Woods, Hudson, and Mason... it was plausible deniability, and mindf*ckery…”

While today does mark 10 years since Treyarch first revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops, it also holds some recent significance. It was on this day last year that a report came out alleging that Treyarch would be taking over development for the planned Call of Duty release in 2020. This report also claimed that this game would be yet another installment in the now staple Black Ops Franchise. Activision’s Call of Duty plans for this year have not yet been officially confirmed, but we can’t help but wonder if an announcement could be on the horizon.

As a part of the 10 year celebration, Treyarch put together a video that recaps the game and the series as a whole. At the end of their post, Treyarch encourages fans to share their own Black Ops stories and recaps with #BlackOps10thAnniversary on social media.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_