Celebrate 20 years of Call of Duty with new retrospective video

It’s been 20 years since the first Call of Duty dropped, and to mark the occasion Activision has put together a short look back.

Back to the future

Can you remember the day when Call of Duty arrived? No, not Calll of Duty: ‘fill in the blank’, just Call of Duty. Period. Heck, you might not be old enough to remember that, considering the franchise is now 20 years (and one day) old. But as goes the history of both the first-person shooter genre and Activision itself, October 29th of the year 2003 was a heck of a day.

It was on that day when CoD first graced PC screens, delivering a World War II FPS experience that landed a metaphorical-headshot on the other big WWII shooter of the day, and cemented a legacy. Since then of course, we’ve seen CoD dominate on consoles as well, and head to vastly different settings like Nam, the Cold War, future time periods, and of course Modern Warfare.

Now with the latest game in that last set about to drop, Activision has put together a look back at what was. And if you’ve been a long time player with some serious memories attached to the title, it’s hard not to smile at some of this.

To celebrate an incredible milestone, the Call of Duty blog is taking players on a stroll down memory lane for Call of Duty’s 20th anniversary. From the original title’s release on October 29, 2003, to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launching on November 10, and everything in between, the Call of Duty franchise has a long and interesting history like no other spanning across two decades.

Activision press release

We would’ve liked to have seen a little of the original Call of Duty games included in that montage, but maybe they would have been too much of a stark contrast, next to the more modern editions, in terms of their overall look. After all, CoD has become something of a visual showcase.

Speaking of, if you’ve been hotly anticipating that third game in the rebooted Modern Warfare series, you’ve just about made it to launch. So enough looking back, ’cause it’s almost time to go hot and take it to the bad guys once again (and let’s hope Soap and Ghost actually make it this time).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is set to hit consoles and the PC on November 10th, 2023.