Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a bit of a mouthful of a title, but most fans can agree that it is better than the alternative. When looking at other potential titles, players need look no further than the rest of the games in the Black Ops series, all of which followed a somewhat odd convention that most simply overlooked. Moving forward, it is good that Treyarch decided to change course on its naming schemes and pick a name that more accurately represents what the game is about, as following in the steps of previous titles would certainly have raised some eyebrows.
For those that may not be aware, the last Black Ops game was Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, but while that is how it is most often written and referred to as, the official branding called it Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII. This likely threw a lot of people off, as most aren’t used to seeing Roman Numerals portrayed in this way, and it begs the question of how Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War would have been written if it was marketed as a straight sequel to Black Ops 4.
The use of Roman Numerals in video game titles is nothing new; in fact, it is very common. Fans are used to seeing titles such as The Last of Us Part 2 being formally titled The Last of Us Part II, and fans of the Final Fantasy series have no doubt had to brush up on their Roman Numeral knowledge in order to be able to understand what title is what. It is because of this familiarity that Black Ops 4‘s title stood out so much, as typically the number ‘4’ is represented as IV in Roman Numerals rather than IIII.
It is worth noting that the use of IIII to represent four and even the use of VIIII to represent nine is technically not incorrect. Though most forms of Roman Numerals prefer the method of placing the numeral in front to signify subtraction, early forms of the model did use this type of nomenclature. Even so, modern models all agree on the correct way of denoting the numbers four and nine, so it is very strange that Call of Duty developer Treyarch decided to portray it this way. Most likely, this was done to invoke the feeling of a military rank being portrayed, but it is still odd.
Now, following this scheme, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War could have been instead titled Call of Duty: Black Ops 5; how would Treyarch have handled the official name of the game? It would either have to break with tradition and show the game as Call of Duty: Black Ops V, thereby breaking with the tradition of portraying the Roman Numeral as a military rank, or gone completely off the deep end and called it Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIII, which has never been an acceptable way of writing the number five in Roman Numerals. Black Ops games have sold very well, this wouldn’t have likely hurt it, but this would just be too much.
With that in mind, it seems to be the right choice to move on to something new with this title’s name, and this could even be the driving factor behind doing so. Using the Roman Numerals to represent military ranks was a clever design choice to be sure, but eventually all good things must end and dragging it out only would have cheapened the effect. Thankfully, fans will never have to see Call of Duty: Black Ops 5 written as Black Ops IIIII, and instead can rely more on understanding what the game is about from its title: the Cold War.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be revealed worldwide on August 26th.
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