The 2018 Call of Duty instalment will be Black Ops IV, according to rumors

No one is surprised that a new Call of Duty will release this year, but the annual tradition of the finer details being leaked hasn't been lost in 2018. This year's rumor suggests that Treyarch is making Black Ops IV, which follows 2015's Black Ops III. But here's the thing: the title will apparently be written as "Black Ops IIII", because Activision does not give a single functional crap about how Roman numerals work.

The news comes via Kotaku, who has reportedly confirmed the rumors. These originated from footage of famous basketball player James Harden wearing the game's logo. Some pointed out that it shared a striking resemblance to the Black Ops 3 logo, only, with an extra "I".

Here's the relevant video:

The Beard has arrived, and he's ready for battle with the Thunder. pic.twitter.com/ky3E8TK9HyMarch 7, 2018

So it looks like Call of Duty won't follow up its immensely successful historical shooter with yet another: a brave (though given development pipelines, perhaps unavoidable) move. In the meantime, it looks like EA and DICE will follow 2016's Battlefield 1 with... Battlefield V. Because screw numbers, right? Put 'em wherever you want, in whichever order you want, formatted however you wish. It just doesn't matter anymore.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.