Call of Duty Is Really Betting On The Nostalgia This Year ▍

This ad tries, and mostly succeeds, to get that same feel as the original from back in the day. Everyone still plays COD and when you enter “The Lobby” you never know who you’re matching up against and given the way matchmaking works these days it does feel like a big nightclub. Like the original it also doesn’t take itself seriously and even makes fun of the absurdity of the things you end up with in game as a result of the serious operators and weapons mixed with the bright and ridiculous bundles in the store.

To me, the original “there’s a soldier in all of us” ad was one of Call of Duty’s best over the years and was the moment it was the moment COD was cemented as not just a gaming phenomenon but a cultural one. Everyone plays COD and this ad put that on display. I guarantee that if you don’t play COD you know someone that either does or has in the past.

But man, with Modern Warfare 3 (2023) launching this year with no new original maps (just remakes of classic Modern Warfare 2 (2009) ones), map voting, teasing the whole Makarov thing, and now with rumors that more “fan favorites” will return over the first two to three content seasons, they must be hoping that nostalgia is strong enough to carry this year. People are going to figure out very quickly, if they haven’t already, that this is little more than a full priced expansion pack for Modern Warfare 2 (2022) with changes to address complaints about movement and ttk from streamers and creators that don’t want to look bad when they get out played.

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