Activision confirms Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 reveal later this month

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It's starting to look very much like the next Call of Duty will be Black Ops 3.

The suggestion that the next Call of Duty will be Black Ops 3 first came to light earlier this week, thanks to a viral marketing effort on the part of Activision. Now we've got this trailer, leaked [Update: posted by, that is, though Activision hasn't confirmed its source] YouTube user TmarTn, and it seems pretty clear: Blops is back!

As Shaun mentioned on Monday, it's not entirely surprising: Treyarch is the Call of Duty studio for 2015, and Treyarch, as we know, does Black Ops. The teaser looks awfully legit, too, and fits with our expectations. It's not official confirmation of Blops 3, but I think it's fair to say we're getting there.

Update 2: Treyarch has all but confirmed that Black Ops 3 is coming, and that the April 26 reveal date is legit. "It feels good to be back," the studio tweeted a few minutes ago, accompanied by an image of the "III" that appeared in the trailer. "It feels even better to be #BackInBlack. Let's do this."

Update 3: And now Activision has nailed it down with a tweet of its own. "It's official—@CallofDuty Black Ops III is coming this year from @Treyarch," it wrote. The tweet also contained a link to an Activision blog post confirming the April 26 reveal date, and hinted that, while the cat is now out of the bag, "new intel" may continue to turn up between now and then.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.