What you need to know
- The first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had very brief footage of the Tiananmen Square protests.
- This trailer has been removed and a shorter trailer uploaded in its place.
- The shot of Tiananmen Square has been removed in the new trailer.
While Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was announced with an ominous teaser warning players to "know your history," said history is already being altered.
As spotted by Kotaku, Activision removed the original teaser trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, replacing it with a trailer that no longer features footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
An exact death toll is not known but it is estimated that anywhere from hundreds to thousands died when the Communist government cracked down on student protestors in Beijing. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government has never acknowledged the events surrounding the massacre.
This trailer being removed in China would not be surprising, given how the CCP government does not approve of footage from the event being shown, but it's certainly disheartening that Activision has removed it worldwide. It's not surprising though, given how people from the company previously took action against a Hearthstone champion who spoke out against police brutality in Hong Kong.
There's also the fact that Chinese megaconglomerate Tencent is an investor in Activision-Blizzard, holding around 5% of the company's stock. The edited trailer can be seen in the video below:
Meanwhile, you can see the original trailer, which is around a minute longer, via IGN below:
Black Ops Cold War is hinting at a politically-charged thriller campaign, so we'll have to wait to see if any other future trailers get edited as well. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is being fully unveiled Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. PT.
