On Thursday, Complex and a few other outlets found a SoundCloud file, with no context attached, of somebody who sounded an awful lot like Kevin Spacey delivering a bad-guy-sounding monologue about democracy—and not really being into that particular form of government so much. Complex originally hypothesized it was a viral campaign for House of Cards.
Variety's Marc Graser ran a spectral analysis on the sound file (wow, Marc) and found a picture of a soldier holding a gun, and made the leap that it was from a new Call of Duty ad.
Late Thursday night, Activision put the full trailer—by 72andSunny and Ant Farm—up on its website for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the latest game in the franchise. And sure enough, there's the digitized K-Space, telling the world he's sick of the Electoral College. (Really, though, this is like HoC Season 4, right? We're on our way there.)
There's also the video below, produced by Activision and Vice, which holds its NewFront presentation on Friday, about the world of Blackwater/Xe Services-style mercenary organizations (euphemism of the day: private military contractors—please note that "private" can modify both "military" and "contractors," depending on how you choose to understand the phrase), much like the one Spacey heads in the new CoD. It's a news report ... except it's also an ad!
It's worth noting that this wasn't entirely how the CoD reveal was supposed to go down, though it is pretty close. With a few images and some hints here and there, Activision had prepared a countdown clock for Sunday, when the trailer was supposed to go live.
But tease enough reporters, and they start reporting: Gaming site Destructoid acquired a leaked copy of the trailer and posted it Thursday night, either blowing the lid off the reveal or moving it up slightly and creating a lot of buzz around a promotional video, depending on how you look at it.
Anyway, the whole thing is kind of brilliant: We bring to you highly sensitive information that is also a series of neato advertisements for a popular video game.