It is no surprise that in the gaming world today, Call of Duty is arguably the most popular franchise out there. Activision’s first person shooter series has sold over millions and millions of copies in the past few years and the number is going to increase once again when Black Ops 2 comes out this November. While Call of Duty is very popular here in the United States, what about other territories, specifically China? Well, Activision is planning to tackle the Asian market with Call of Duty Online for PC. They are teaming up with Chinese online gaming giant Tencent to bring a free to play multiplayer shooter experience to China and other Asian countries. Even though it is free to play, microtransactions will be a key part of the game if players want to enhance things expected from a normal Call of Duty game such as new guns, perks, etc. In addition to the massive multiplayer madness, a completely new story is going to be told through new Spec Ops missions from the Modern Warfare universe.

This official announcement has been teased and worked on for some time now as Activision was registering domain names related to Call of Duty and China recently. Both Activision and Tencent are excited to work together on this big project since China has a gaming audience reaching into the tens of millions and with a Call of Duty game catered only to Chinese audiences, expect the Call of Duty franchise sales numbers to go even higher. Call of Duty in China is big for Activision as they hope to expand their markets to other countries. Blizzard, which is also a part of Activision, has been hugely successful in other Asian territories with games such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III. There is a trailer comprised of early footage from the game below if anyone wants to see it in action. No official date has been set for Call of Duty Online yet, but one of the most popular gaming franchises is coming to China in a big way and could be the beginning of a great relationship between Activision and Tencent if this becomes very successful.