Call of Duty hasn’t been historically aligned with a tolerant and friendly player base, in fact, a long-running stereotype about the game is that every time you logged on you were likely going to be called a racial slur by a third-grader. This of course doesn’t mean that Activision shares the beliefs of certain vocal minorities of their player base, and the past few weeks have shown unlikely businesses showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement among the ongoing George Floyd protests. This week, the NFL, the Washington Redskins, and many others have expressed support for the movement. In the world of gaming, EA delayed the Madden 21 celebration stating that now is not the time, CD Projekt Red moved the Night City Wire event back few weeks, and Sony has postponed the Future of Gaming event where they will show off PS5 games and maybe even the console itself. All of these were postponed because now is not the time for excitement or celebration, and Activision has joined the cause by delaying the season four update for Modern Warfare and Warzone as well as season seven of Call of Duty: Mobile.
The main complaint about this choice is that gaming is an escape for many people in this scary world. And though people don’t want to hear it… that’s the point, these companies are postponing these events so that there are fewer ways to avoid facing reality and helping to create a change. Also… you can still play the game. Yes, season four is gearing up to be an exciting one, but it is still going to be exciting next week or next month, or whenever it is eventually released. Also, you can still play the game the same way that you have been able to for the last several months, it is just the new content that has been delayed.
Season four was going to release right around the time that this article was published on June 2nd/3rd; the new release date has not been announced. The battle pass countdown timer has stopped, and now simply reads 0 seconds. Activision will likely announce the new release date either later this week or sometime next week, but for now the timing is still up in the air.