Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's teaser trailer has been banned in China due to its inclusion of footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The teaser trailer was released at the tail end of last week and many COD fans in the west were lapping up the Cold War-era footage and details that pointed the franchise towards the theatre of political espionage and intrigue that the Black Ops games are known for. Watch it in full for yourself below.
The inclusion of footage of protesters clashing with troops during the Tiananmen Square incident seemingly angered netizens of mainland China whose authorities took no time in banning the trailer. This prompted Activision to release a shorter, revised trailer (via CBR) that omitted the footage and replaced it with blank, black screens while the audio still played out underneath. A subtle nod towards censorship? Possibly.
Advert
For their part, those in China unhappy with the trailer noted that it showed a clear political agenda and ideology, using video games as a way to deliver that agenda.
China is known to widely dispute the facts of the incident (known to them as the June Fourth Incident) and have strict censorship on any and all mentions of the infamous event, in which many thousands are believed to have been killed. In the west we know it by the image of the lone man standing in front of a column of tanks, refusing to yield to their oppressive military dominance. Strong stuff.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be officially unveiled by Activision and developers Treyarch tomorrow, August 26th. Unfortunately for them, it looks like just about every meaningful piece of information has already been datamined out of the latest Call Of Duty: Warzone update.
Advert
Still, they could throw us some curveballs so, it'll be worth keeping an eye on the reveal to see if anything happens that we don't already know about.
Featured Image Credit: Activision / ShutterstockTopics: call of duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops