A Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War teaser trailer has been banned in China for depicting the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, according to a report analyzing the situation. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the next game in the franchise and will be developed by Treyarch and Raven Software with a release date scheduled for sometime later this year, and in anticipation of its worldwide reveal, the official YouTube channel shared a trailer to build anticipation.
While the stature of the series generally makes keeping its next instalment under wraps until reveal date a tall task, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was a worse-kept secret than most. Constant leaks - including a Doritos leak that unveiled the game's full name - have seen consumers prepared for a return to the Black Ops branch of the Call of Duty franchise for some time now. Questions about the game remain, however, including just how it will integrate with the immensely popular Call of Duty: Warzone battle royale experience, as well as what its choice of setting will mean for campaign modes, weapons layouts, and game mechanics.
Ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's official reveal on Wednesday, August 26, an official Call of Duty YouTube teaser trailer was ed for the game. That trailer featured a roughly second-long clip of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, and according to a report from negative backlash from mainland Chinese citizens on the internet, resulting in the trailer being banned in China. Since then, the official Call of Duty YouTube channel has ed a second, shorter trailer - one that does not feature footage from the Tiananamen Square protests at all.
Chinese backlash over the inclusion of footage of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 are largely over the worry that reminders of those demonstrations could create more unrest now, especially given the political climate in the country currently. The Tiananmen Square protests are internationally famous as part of a pro-democracy, student-run movement that came to a head on June 4, 1989, when the People's Liberation Army opened fire on protesters in an event that is believed to have led to thousands of deaths. It's an event that has been frequently censored by the Chinese Communist Party, and that includes in online media, like YouTube trailers for video games.
While consumers are unlikely to ever get an official statement on why Activision and the Call of Duty brand pulled the original trailer, it seems pretty obvious given the context of what's happened. The Chinese video game market is an immensely lucrative one, and publishers who want to break into it usually need to play ball with the country's strict censorship regulations and other policies.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's reveal will happen on August 26, 2020.
Source: CBR
