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Is Call of Duty a government psyop? There are suspicious ties between the franchise and the US military

Mindless entertainment or covert propaganda? (Credit: Call of Duty/ Activision/ Infinity Ward/ YouTube)

Mindless entertainment or covert propaganda? (Credit: Call of Duty/ Activision/ Infinity Ward/ YouTube)


March 7, 2023   4 mins

Even if you’re not into video games, you will have heard of Call of Duty. It’s one of the most popular titles ever made. Fans have devoted more than 25 billion hours to the first-person shooter game — that’s 2.85 million years. It’s a product with an enormous amount of power — and, some say, the potential to be weaponised. Last year, Alan MacLeod, who has written two books about propaganda, suggested that the most recent edition of Call of Duty Modern Warfare: II, last year’s biggest-selling title — is nothing more than a US government “psychological operation”, or “psyop”.

The purpose of a psyop, according to the US Department of the Army, “is to create in neutral, friendly, or hostile foreign groups the emotions, attitudes, or desired behaviour that support the achievement of US national objectives and the military mission”. But there’s no reason to only target “foreign groups”.

The British-American writer Alistair Cooke called Hollywood “the most effective and disastrous propaganda factory there has ever been in the history of human beings”. And for several years during and after the Second World War, the film industry worked very closely with the US military to push certain narratives to domestic consumers. Today, however, the movie industry has lost much of its reach. It is now worth a rather trifling $29 billion. The video game industry is worth $365 billion; by 2030, that figure is expected to jump to $470 billion. So, much as Hollywood once served as the primary vehicle for Pentagon-approved propaganda, why wouldn’t those in power utilise video games to spread particular messages and influence the masses? After all, in the United States, a country of 331 million people, 215 million now play them on a regular basis. Tens of millions of these gamers play Call of Duty religiously.

Take one of the very first missions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. It shares a number of striking similarities with the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian military officer who was killed by the US military in 2020. Sporting a big white beard, “Ghorbrani”, the Iranian general in the game, even looks like Soleimani. He is, the player learns, a Russian-controlled puppet. Your job is to kill him. The mission reminded me of another, in Call of Duty: Black Ops, released in 2010, in which players were ordered to murder Fidel Castro. Like the order to kill “Ghorbrani”, the order to kill Castro sounded like it was coming straight from the Pentagon.

Call of Duty wouldn’t be the first video game to have a storyline based on real events — so no wonder there are parallels with US army operations. It’s what the public wants. But is there more to it than realistic entertainment? The connection between the US national security state and the entertainment industry is incredibly strong. When Edward Snowden disclosed thousands of state documents a decade ago, it quickly became clear that agencies such as the CIA and the Department of Defense have for years used video games for counterterrorism operations, with spies conducting surveillance operations inside World of Warcraft.

Video games are also frequently used for military training purposes. Tank crews use virtual-reality systems to simulate the realities of war. The US military even created its own multiplayer shooter game — America’s Army — to train recruits, before working directly with game makers behind franchises such as Doom and Call of Duty. So, is it a stretch to imagine that the US military might use Call of Duty, a game that has more than 118 million active users worldwide, to influence young, highly-suggestible gamers?

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Tom Secker, an independent researcher, appear to shed some light on the connection between national security and the video-game industry. One, shared with MintPress News, purports to show that in September 2018, the United States Air Force flew Coco Francini, an executive producer with close ties to Call of Duty, to their headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Florida. There, the Air Force demonstrated its hardware, the aim being to make individuals like Francini more “credible advocates” for US military propaganda. Francini, alongside other powerful individuals in the entertainment industry, were shown AC-130 planes and CV-22 helicopters. Both these aircrafts feature heavily in the Call of Duty franchise.

Other documents show that the military’s partnership with Call of Duty started long before 2018: the United States Marine Corps (USMC) collaborated in the production of Call of Duty 5 in 2008. Actively working with the video game industry, Secker argues, enables the US military to reach recruitment targets, with the game acting as “a recruitment portal”. There are now so many professional gamers in the US military that it has its very own Esports team, divided into the following divisions: Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch, Magic: The Gathering, and Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These military gamers presumably communicate with civilians — who might, one imagines, make fine recruits.And the latest Call of Duty instalment comes at a time when the military is desperately struggling to find capable individuals.

The company behind Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard, has a long history of crossover with the military. From 2004 to 2008, Frances Townsend, Activision Blizzard’s senior counsel, worked as an assistant to then-president George W. Bush, advising on homeland security and counterterrorism. Townsend also sits on the boards of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Atlantic Council, which is has ties to Nato. Then there’s Brian Bulatao. Before becoming Activision Blizzard’s Chief Administrative Officer, he was the CIA’s Chief Operating Officer. Now, in addition to “key administrative functions”, Bulatao also oversees the Call of Duty Endowment, a charity closely tied to the military, which “helps veterans find high quality careers”. Although its goal is undoubtedly noble, it’s yet another example of Pentagon-Activision overlap.

Dr Matthew Alford, an expert in communications who has spent years investigating the Pentagon’s propaganda campaigns, shared a number of documents with me, all of which were obtained through FOIs. In one, an individual associated with the Pentagon discusses the fact that Activision Blizzard is interested in creating new characters. Pentagon officials, according to the report, plan to meet with Activision Blizzard representatives and offer advice on what the “US Army of the future” will look like. “Our interest,” reads the document, is “to correctly establish and frame the brand within the game.” One scenario being considered, it continues, “involves future war with China”. This means, when the next instalment of Call of Duty is released, players will will be tasked with the assassination of a Russian scoundrel who looks eerily similar to Vladimir Putin and maybe even told to take out a rotund Chinese character called “Xi Pijing”.


John Mac Ghlionn is a researcher and essayist.

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Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
1 year ago

I am (I am embarrassed to say) a grown man from Canada who plays COD Warzone. This is the series of games where you play against other people online. I am not sure the propaganda is working very well because my character (called a ‘skin’ in the game) is a modern Chinese soldier. While there are US military skins – pretty much every army in the world is there as well – as well as skins of people who look very much like freedom fighters or members of irregular armies. Of course you can also be Snoop Dog – or Bruce Willis from Die Hard (complete with one liners from the franchise). Finally – there are hundreds of different firearms from all over the world in the game including a lot of Russian ones. So while I have no doubt the US – and probably other militaries – try to influence the game developers the game seems pretty neutral. I don’t play the other version of the game – where you play out a storyline against the computer – so maybe that is what the author is focussing on.

Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
1 year ago

I am (I am embarrassed to say) a grown man from Canada who plays COD Warzone. This is the series of games where you play against other people online. I am not sure the propaganda is working very well because my character (called a ‘skin’ in the game) is a modern Chinese soldier. While there are US military skins – pretty much every army in the world is there as well – as well as skins of people who look very much like freedom fighters or members of irregular armies. Of course you can also be Snoop Dog – or Bruce Willis from Die Hard (complete with one liners from the franchise). Finally – there are hundreds of different firearms from all over the world in the game including a lot of Russian ones. So while I have no doubt the US – and probably other militaries – try to influence the game developers the game seems pretty neutral. I don’t play the other version of the game – where you play out a storyline against the computer – so maybe that is what the author is focussing on.

Heather Peeters
Heather Peeters
1 year ago

I don’t play video games, but I have a question for anyone who knows more about this than me. I work with young people who are gamers. Many of them seem to take the opposite tack than what is being argued in this article. In the games they play, they often take the side of the Germans or the Soviets. They prefer the AK47 as a weapon. They seem to think the Americans are always the bad guys. They say pro-Communist things. I got the impression that video games were not making any fans of the American military. Is it possible there is a war of propaganda happening in the video game world?

M Lux
M Lux
1 year ago

While I wouldn’t necessarily discount the possibility of a propaganda war, what you describe sounds more like standard contrarianism amongst the youth – it’s not exactly hard to see what angle these games are pushing, so the instinct is to push back (usually in a semi-ironic manner).
With regards to the “pro-communist things” – there was a study doing the rounds in 2020 which showed a third of young people in the US would prefer communism over democracy (which I find understandable considering America is an Oligarchy masquerading as a democracy) so that might also be relevant to your experiences.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
1 year ago

As a past middle-aged man with the brain of a 10-year-old I enjoy computer games and a quasi-military competitive hobby called “airsoft”. From my perspective, role-playing is a significant component of these games, but it seems that the US-style military is the most copied and aped.

John Dellingby
John Dellingby
1 year ago

You see a similar thing in grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron 4. This has a start date of 1936 and allows the player to take very different paths for historical states and governments. The most popular one from what I can tell usually involves restoring a monarchy somewhere.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago

Much like advertising generally or micro-transactions in video games, it’s not about the median consumer. It’s about increasing and fishing in the margins for recruitment.

M Lux
M Lux
1 year ago

While I wouldn’t necessarily discount the possibility of a propaganda war, what you describe sounds more like standard contrarianism amongst the youth – it’s not exactly hard to see what angle these games are pushing, so the instinct is to push back (usually in a semi-ironic manner).
With regards to the “pro-communist things” – there was a study doing the rounds in 2020 which showed a third of young people in the US would prefer communism over democracy (which I find understandable considering America is an Oligarchy masquerading as a democracy) so that might also be relevant to your experiences.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
1 year ago

As a past middle-aged man with the brain of a 10-year-old I enjoy computer games and a quasi-military competitive hobby called “airsoft”. From my perspective, role-playing is a significant component of these games, but it seems that the US-style military is the most copied and aped.

John Dellingby
John Dellingby
1 year ago

You see a similar thing in grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron 4. This has a start date of 1936 and allows the player to take very different paths for historical states and governments. The most popular one from what I can tell usually involves restoring a monarchy somewhere.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago

Much like advertising generally or micro-transactions in video games, it’s not about the median consumer. It’s about increasing and fishing in the margins for recruitment.

Heather Peeters
Heather Peeters
1 year ago

I don’t play video games, but I have a question for anyone who knows more about this than me. I work with young people who are gamers. Many of them seem to take the opposite tack than what is being argued in this article. In the games they play, they often take the side of the Germans or the Soviets. They prefer the AK47 as a weapon. They seem to think the Americans are always the bad guys. They say pro-Communist things. I got the impression that video games were not making any fans of the American military. Is it possible there is a war of propaganda happening in the video game world?

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Thin gruel. The Top Gun movies faced similar allegations. That the armed services wish to reach out to young people via popular culture and entertainment for recruitment and PR purposes? I’m shocked!

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Thin gruel. The Top Gun movies faced similar allegations. That the armed services wish to reach out to young people via popular culture and entertainment for recruitment and PR purposes? I’m shocked!

Eric Kottke
Eric Kottke
1 year ago

If the goal of this is to improve recruiting, it is not going well.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Kottke

The problem there is Reddit. Vlogs from the frontline show the utter randomness of death in a trench.
Let’s face it. Anybody who plays combat games is more likely to not want to join up as such games annunciate death in bold and underline.

Last edited 1 year ago by Antony Hirst
Mark Phillips
Mark Phillips
1 year ago
Reply to  Antony Hirst

And any that do soon find that the crack of a bullet passing close by has a loosening effect on the bowels. Trust me. Then again we were all volunteers and could talk, and had talked to the people who were in WW2, Korea and, dare I say it, Vietnam. You never get hurt in games, death and limb loss are not real. There is a very real disconnect there.

Mark Phillips
Mark Phillips
1 year ago
Reply to  Antony Hirst

And any that do soon find that the crack of a bullet passing close by has a loosening effect on the bowels. Trust me. Then again we were all volunteers and could talk, and had talked to the people who were in WW2, Korea and, dare I say it, Vietnam. You never get hurt in games, death and limb loss are not real. There is a very real disconnect there.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Kottke

The problem there is Reddit. Vlogs from the frontline show the utter randomness of death in a trench.
Let’s face it. Anybody who plays combat games is more likely to not want to join up as such games annunciate death in bold and underline.

Last edited 1 year ago by Antony Hirst
Eric Kottke
Eric Kottke
1 year ago

If the goal of this is to improve recruiting, it is not going well.

Christiaan Neethling
Christiaan Neethling
1 year ago

Well… some fair points. I want to take it further. What does this mean for Grand Theft Auto (GTA) then? That game promotes vice, immorality and violence. Who would be promoting that? Looks like it is promoting some current affairs in certain cities around the world. Normalizing random violence and crime. Who would be funding and promoting that?

Christiaan Neethling
Christiaan Neethling
1 year ago

Well… some fair points. I want to take it further. What does this mean for Grand Theft Auto (GTA) then? That game promotes vice, immorality and violence. Who would be promoting that? Looks like it is promoting some current affairs in certain cities around the world. Normalizing random violence and crime. Who would be funding and promoting that?

Max Price
Max Price
1 year ago

How is this a bad thing?

Rohan Moore
Rohan Moore
1 year ago
Reply to  Max Price

It’s underhand. We like to pretend that democracy involved openness and honesty rather than covert mind control.

Rohan Moore
Rohan Moore
1 year ago
Reply to  Max Price

It’s underhand. We like to pretend that democracy involved openness and honesty rather than covert mind control.

Max Price
Max Price
1 year ago

How is this a bad thing?

L Walker
L Walker
1 year ago

Aircraft is both plural and singular. Tacking a letter s onto it shows ignorance.

L Walker
L Walker
1 year ago

Aircraft is both plural and singular. Tacking a letter s onto it shows ignorance.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Not the faintest idea as to what this is about?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Not the faintest idea as to what this is about?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Never heard of it.. I don’t even know what a video game is!