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The Black Ops 6 hype train has started chugging along following Activision’s release of a very mysterious interactive teaser on May 22. Now, the new, found footage Blair Witch-like clip isn’t a surprise since the CoD publisher tends to release new games towards the latter portion of each year. However, some fans claim that the much-talked-about BO6 snippet was dropped to combat the rising popularity of XDefiant, which Ubisoft released just a day earlier.
Over on X (formerly Twitter), Rocky4453 claimed XDefiant’s steadily rising player count spurred Activision’s launch of the BO6 trailer. Predictably enough, many came to the defense of CoD, with one fan saying that they doubt Activision is scared of Ubisoft’s new game. Unfortunately, XDefiant’s extremely rocky opening day didn’t help its case any, though recent server stabilization has finally allowed players to fully enjoy the shoot ’em up.
The rising hype surrounding it is even pushing the Ubisoft shooter to leapfrogging The Finals in popularity. Although it still has a ways to go before rivaling the likes of CoD, most player reactions so far have been largely positive, indicating it could be on its way to fulfilling its lofty moniker. Of course, Call of Duty’s foothold as one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time means it would still take a herculean effort on XDefiant and Ubisoft’s part to upend its genre dominance.
Now, the release timing of the BO6 clip could be a coincidence since, as mentioned before, this is when Activision tends to provide new teasers for upcoming CoD games. But it can’t be denied that XDefiant is a rising direct competitor to CoD, and Activision, not one to back down, may be proactively attempting to nip things in the bud to prevent Ubisoft’s offering from gaining even more steam.
