Call Of Duty Is Being Turned Into A Board Game

Call of Duty is getting the tabletop treatment next year. Activision has joined hands with Arcane Wonders — the maker of card and board game titles such as "Mage Wars Arena," "Sheriff of Nottingham," and "Onitama" — to serve the unimaginatively titled Call of Duty: The Board Game. The game will be distributed via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Pre-orders begin in the ongoing year's Fall season, while a full release will only happen in 2024. 

Notably, this won't be the first game of its kind, as you can already buy titles like Call of Duty: K/D Party Game by Wilder on Amazon for as little as $25. However, Call of Duty: The Board Game would be the first time that Activision is licensing its hit franchise to an established name in the tabletop, board, and card game genre. The Activision Blizzard nexus also delivered the World of Warcraft: The Board Game back in 2005. Then came the Small World of Warcraft in 2020. A year later, Pandemic revealed the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King board game.

Heavy on strategy and tactics, the upcoming Call of Duty tabletop games promises "iconic maps, a variety of intense game modes, and team-based objectives." The short teaser video takes more of a comic-inspired route and doesn't really show any of the board game's in-box contents. However, the official press release mentions that the bundle will offer "stunning artwork and high-quality components, including miniatures."

Folks shelling out for the tabletop makeover of Activision's iconic shooter franchise can expect some of the franchise's well-known soldier characters and familiar maps to greet them on the board. Arcane Wonders is also promising a "variety of scenarios and gameplay modes" to keep players engaged. Not much is known about the game strategies right now, except the fact that players will take on the roles of soldiers and duke it out across multiple scenarios using weapons borrowed from the actual game's loadout.

It's rather interesting that Activision and its partners are taking the crowdfunding route for a gaming property as hot as Call of Duty. The latest addition to the franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II crossed a staggering $1 billion in sales in just ten days since its release. Plus, Nintendo also inked a 10-year deal to keep the franchise on its cash-cow handheld console platform. Above all, Microsoft forked $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard last year, bringing all its gaming franchises under its Xbox label. The Activision deal has since attracted serious regulatory hurdles, with Sony being the most notable party that is against the acquisition citing competition risks.