The Mystery Of The Red Door Explained

Fans of the Call of Duty series have been anxiously awaiting any news of the series' next installment. Now it appears as though a mysterious new listing on the Microsoft Store has given way to a conspiracy theory involving the future of Call of Duty.

A listing for a new shooter from Activision has recently popped up on the Microsoft Store. That game is called The Red Door and the weirdest thing about it is that the listing has been added without anything in the way of an announcement from Activision. No trailer, no tweets from the publisher, nothing that would point in the listing's direction in any official capacity. It almost gives one the impression that the game was listed by accident, leaking ahead of schedule. However, Activision has yet to pull the listing, which suggests that the new listing and it's lack of fanfare is entirely deliberate.

All that the listing provides is an eerie teaser poster and a brief, enigmatic description that reads, "There is more than one truth. If you go looking for answers, be ready to question everything and accept that nothing will ever be the same. The Red Door awaits, do you dare step through it?"

There have been rumors for quite some time now that the next installment of the Call of Duty series may be called Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War. This would mean that the next Black Ops game would likely be a period piece of some kind, which is certainly exciting for fans of more historically-placed storytelling. Many fans of the series believe that The Red Door is actually a front for the reveal of a new Call of Duty game.

The most telling piece of evidence is the fact that a serial number was registered last month for The Red Door. According to Serial Station, the PS4 listing for this game bears the serial number "COD2020INTALPHA1." If that doesn't point a big flashing neon sign towards The Red Door actually being the Alpha version of the new Call of Duty game, then what else could it possibly be?

One fan on Reddit has pointed out another potential clue lies in the title itself, or rather, how the title may connect to a previous Call of Duty game. During the original reveal trailer Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a particular song was used: "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. That song notably contains the lyric "I see a red door and I want to paint it black." 

Redditor CbznBlto seems to take this as a sign that The Red Door is not only a codename, but an inside joke or "gag" calling back to that very song and it's connection to the Black Ops series. This may be seen as a bit of a stretch by some fans, but it would be a pretty sneaky and fun nod if it turns out to be true.

There have been rumors circulating within the last week that a major announcement related to the Call of Duty franchise would be coming soon. In fact, some sources pointed to an announcement being made today, which certainly seems to bolster the idea that The Red Door is, in fact, related to Call of Duty.

Some fans have speculated that this means we may get a Call of Duty reveal during next week's big Xbox livestream event. However, that has not been confirmed and may turn out to be wishful thinking. Others are simply bowled over by the sheer size of The Red Door's file as shown in the listing. It appears as though the game is a whopping 81.65 GB. If it turns out that this is in fact just the Alpha version of the game, then one has to wonder just how truly massive the final game might turn out to be. After all, the ballooning size of Modern Warfare's game file has been a running concern with fans of the series.

One fan pointed out that the poster for The Red Door seems to have more in common with a horror movie poster than key art for a Call of Duty game. It's unclear if this means that the next Call of Duty game will contain more horror elements, but it's an interesting point.

As of this writing, Activision has not made a statement regarding the connection between The Red Door and Call of Duty, if any. Hopefully fans won't have to wait too long before finding out if this is the long-awaited confirmation of Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War or something else entirely.