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Call of Duty

video game franchise

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ192156
Source-derived summary

Call of Duty (CoD) is a first-person shooter video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, was released on November 14, 2025. The next game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, is scheduled for release on October 23, 2026.

The series originally focused on a World War II setting, with Infinity Ward developing Call of Duty (2003) and Call of Duty 2 (2005) and Treyarch developing Call of Duty 3 (2006). Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) introduced a modern setting and proved to be the breakthrough title for the series, creating the Modern Warfare sub-series; a Modern Warfare remastered version was released in 2016. Two other entries, Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011), were made. The sub-series received a reboot with Modern Warfare in 2019, Modern Warfare II in 2022, and Modern Warfare III in 2023. Infinity Ward has developed two games outside of the Modern Warfare sub-series, Ghosts (2013) and Infinite Warfare (2016).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Call of Duty” is video game franchise. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Call, Duty and video, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003, 2025, 2026, 2005—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2003-10-29, 2003-11-07—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Call, Duty and video is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “video game franchise” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q192156. The Library of Congress control number is no2024092847. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2025, 2026 and 2005.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Call of Duty”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Call of Duty primary sources, Call of Duty archive and Call research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Call of Duty”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Call of Duty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.