The first trailer for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been taken down after it was blocked due to an image of the protests at the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian’anmen Square) in China. Activision shortly thereafter uploaded a new, shortened trailer.
What happened to the trailer? On August 19, 2020, players unlocked the first official trailer for Call of Duty: Cold War, the upcoming CoD for 2020. In the trailer, KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov talks about the dangers of communism.
This trailer has disappeared from YouTube. The link to the video is dead, and anyone trying to view the original trailer through embeds encounters the following or a similar error:
Before Activision took the trailer down, the film had already been blocked in China and was not viewable there.
Image of Protests Forces New Trailer for Cold War
Why was the trailer blocked? A scene in the old trailer shows the protests at the Gate of Heavenly Peace, also known as Tian’anmen Square. There, the so-called “Tian’anmen Massacre” took place on June 4, 1989 (via Wikipedia).
References to this massacre typically lead to censorship in China, which is sometimes even used to exclude Chinese players. In the survival MMO Atlas, for example, players have tried to trigger Chinese censorship with certain words.
According to some players, the word “Tiananmen” is even generally banned in some in-game chats, such as in Battlefield 5 (via reddit). A short image of the protests was visible in the trailer for the new Call of Duty. The image shows some demonstrators attempting to destroy a tank:
According to the website Comic Book Resources, which cites a Chinese website as a source, these scenes triggered the ban. The government allegedly feared that the images would revive memories of the origins of the unrest.
This is the new trailer: Shortly afterwards, Activision released a new trailer on the official YouTube channel, which is a good deal shorter and omits some scenes.
This one lasts only one minute and omits, among other things, Bezmenov’s comments on how communism threatens the USA during the Cold War, as well as the corresponding scenes of the massacre:
The original trailer is still available on the YouTube channel of IGN. It lasts 2:02 minutes, more than twice as long as the new trailer.
Is CoD too Critical for Politics?
Similar issues have already occurred with the current Call of Duty. Modern Warfare disappeared from the PS Store in Russia, apparently because the depiction of Russia in the game was considered too negative.
The remaster of the famous campaign of Modern Warfare 2 was not released in Russia due to the “No Russian” mission. In this mission, you play a heavily armed raid on an airport where dozens of civilians die and are partially executed.
Call of Duty apparently addresses very controversial topics with its latest parts and processes them. To what extent the trailer ban in China and the new upload will affect the game itself remains to be seen. The official reveal of Cold War is scheduled for Wednesday.
