Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s Zombies: Gets New Trailer & All-Star Cast

It’s no secret that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is getting zombies. Rumors regarding the undead’s return started a few days before Advanced Warfare’s release, when someone with an early copy of the game leaked zombie footage online. A couple of days later, GameStop confirmed that zombies would be part of Advanced Warfare’s DLC content. More recently, Activision released a trailer officially spotlighting the game’s new “Exo Zombies.”

That first trailer made it look like Advanced Warfare’s zombie mode would have some kind of narrative – it ends with a cutscene in which Captain Gideon gets yanked out of a helicopter by an exosuit-enhanced zombie – but it was unclear whether this was just a one-off tease or a hint at something more in-depth.

Well, if the newest teaser is any indication, Exo Zombies doesn’t just have a story; from the looks of things, it’s a bona fide Hollywood blockbuster. Exo Zombie’s cast includes two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and – of course – The Walking Dead alumnus Jon Bernthal.

That’s a lot of star power, and it looks like Sledgehammer’s trying to give Exo Zombies a plot that’s as impressive as its cast. The expansion is set in a world where Advanced Warfare big-bad ATLAS dropped a bomb to end a war; instead of stopping hostilities, however, things went incredibly wrong. Now, four “untrained and unprepared” ATLAS employees must fight off the undead hoards. Like the trailer says, “No warning. No back up. No one left… but us.”

Previous reports said that Exo Zombies would have co-op multiplayer and would be split into four episodes. That’s implicitly confirmed here, as Activision says that “the first chapter of Exo Zombies is included with the Havoc DLC”; presumably, later chapters will be included in Advanced Warfare’s other DLC packs.

Gamers who want the entire Exo Zombies campaign can buy each DLC pack separately, or they can purchase the Advanced Warfare Season Pass for $50 ($10 cheaper than buying the packs individually). The Havoc DLC comes out in January for the Xbox One, and later for other platforms.

The trailer’s suitably epic and fairly creepy, and in terms of storytelling the expansion looks to meet the high standards set by Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s star-studded main campaign. At the very least, Exo Zombies’ story should be a lot more fun, given the pulpy sci-fi setting and (assumed) absence of ham-fisted sentimentality. Gamers still haven’t gotten to see too much of Exo Zombies’ gameplay, but with the first chapter only a month away, it’s likely more footage will be released soon.

And come on, it’s zombies wearing super-suits. What else do you really need to know?

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Havoc DLC and Exo Zombies will release for Xbox One in January, 2015.

TAGS: Activision, Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, PC, PS3, PS4, Sledgehammer Games, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s Zombies: Gets New Trailer & All-Star Cast

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny $29.99 from Microsoft Store tomorrow, $19 doorbuster

For tomorrow only, the Microsoft Store is offering a heck of a deal on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Destiny on either the Xbox One or Xbox 360.

Starting at 8AM Eastern on December 13th, both games will be on sale for $29.99 at either your local Microsoft Store, or through the online shop. Even better, if you’re one of the first 50 people to buy either game at one of the retail outlets, you’ll get an even better price: $19.99.

And now, for some reason, you can watch a very British woman scolding us yanks for our holiday screw-ups, and telling us what to buy. Didn’t we start our own country to get away from such situations?

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny $29.99 from Microsoft Store tomorrow, $19 doorbuster

‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ Is The Biggest Entertainment Launch of 2014

In the last few weeks, Activision has claimed that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare would not only outsell Call of Duty: Ghosts, but also go on to become the biggest game of the year – Two very bold claims for a series that’s slowly dropping in sales.

Last week, however, alongside the release of the game’s first update, Advanced Warfare was revealed to have accomplished the former of Activision’s statements, outselling Ghosts; at least, in the UK. Today, it seems that the game has vindicated the second of the two claims, with Activision announcing that AW is now the “biggest entertainment launch of 2014″ when it comes to overall revenue, even when compared to the likes of movie, music and book launches.

Furthermore, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the “highest-selling digital launch in console history,” based on data from Xbox Live, PSN and Activision’s own internal estimations.

With milestones such as these to be proud of, you’d think that definitive sales numbers for the game would soon follow, if only to show off; but no. For one reason or another, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, avoided the subject, instead focusing on total revenue made since the Call of Duty series began in 2003. And while $10 billion is a large amount of money most can’t even begin to imagine, it’s not specific enough to make Advanced Warfare’s own achievements more exciting.

There were no launch day stats; no lengthy infographics; nothing that really says “look at what we did!” aside from a couple of player stats revealing that 370 million online matches were played during the game’s launch week, and players have leveled up over 200 million times.

“Since Activision created the Call of Duty franchise in 2003, franchise revenues have exceeded $10 billion in sales worldwide, far exceeding box office receipts for such household movie franchises as Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man and Avengers, combined.”

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, added on to speak about sales performance, though only in vague terms:

“Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous. We believe Advanced Warfare will be the most successful game of the year and we thank our fans for making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year.”

Activision neglecting to delve into overall sales numbers for AW (or sharing any other interesting facts) is a bit suspicious; almost to the point that it downplays the game’s own accomplishments. For past releases, the company has been eager to share and discuss the performances of their games, regardless of if they were big hits or underwhelming.

For whatever reason, though, Activision isn’t sharing much this time around, and it’s unlikely that we’ll get more out of them.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out now for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

TAGS: Activision, Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, PC, PS3, PS4, Sledgehammer Games, Xbox 360, Xbox One

‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ Is The Biggest Entertainment Launch of 2014