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Activision wants “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” to be your new obsession. Its first big step in that plan involves a sports fan convention and “Obsession” star Inde Navarrette.
Taking place at the Javits Center in New
York City this weekend, Fanatics Fest 2026 will welcome 150,000 attendees between its kick-off Thursday through Sunday’s closing day. During that time, sports from Formula One to FIFA to the NBA will be showcased through panels, events and athlete meet-and-greets. And featured right alongside those top brands will be the Xbox-produced “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4,” the first-ever video game to take a headlining spot at Fanatics Fest.
While “CoD” players may not be the first group you think of attending a sports fan convention (with all due respect to the massive esports industry), Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl says there’s a clear logic to the choice.
“It started with an insight: A lot of people that buy our game, they usually buy one or two games a year; us and maybe a sports game,” Bahl tells Variety. “And the overlap between us and sports is really powerful. It’s always been there. We see the players shouting us out in interviews, on podcasts. We see them talking about the communication. That when they play together, it actually helps their communication on the field. We saw that with the Chiefs. We heard that with the Knicks players.”
Following two years of back-to-back “Black Ops” releases, Bahl and the Activision team wanted to approach the marketing for this year’s new “Call of Duty” installment — a “Modern Warfare” game from Xbox’s Infinity Ward studio — differently by getting as many fans to demo the game as possible before its Oct. 23 release.
“We were thinking about how one thing we really wanted to do this year that was different is we haven’t put the game in people’s hands before it came out,” Bahl says. “We have betas and things like that. But I think getting back to those days of going to events, going to experiences, and allowing people to play — we knew we wanted to do that.”
Because the “Venn diagram is so strong” between “Call of Duty” gamers and sports fans, Bahl and co. thought of Fanatics Fest as one option that would give them easy access to thousands of players. But the Activision CMO says even the event organizers weren’t anticipating what the “Modern Warfare 4″ team had in mind.
“I don’t think they were thinking that we’d come as big as we’re coming,” Bahl says. “I can remember the first conversation, and I think they thought we’re just gonna have a small little booth someplace, and maybe somebody playing some video games. But I think in a lot of ways, we made it very clear that we wanted to be there and really have a presence. It’s F1, FIFA and us as you walk in.”
For “CoD,” going “big” at Fanatics Fest includes activations with Aston Martin and Polaris, celebrity grudge matches between Knicks, Yankees and WWE stars, tons of swag and a live panel featuring Bahl, NBA star and “Call of Duty: Mobile” actor Kevin Durant, Infinity Ward director Mark Grigsby and “Obsession” star Inde Navarrette.
Yes, Navarrette, who was asked to join Saturday’s panel about the impact “Call of Duty” has had on pop culture because the actress is a hard core “Call of Duty” player who has spent years streaming her gameplay.
“We just want to celebrate her and the amazing success of ‘Obsession’ and to see her blow up,” Bahl says. “We’ve been following her, we’ve seen her streams and she’s super competitive. So what’s been fascinating for me to watch is, as we’ve made the announcement, you look in the comments, and some people might not know that she was a ‘CoD’ streamer, and all of her fans are coming out and kind of defending her and going, ‘She’s legit. Go back, watch the streams. She was super competitive.’”
That’s not to say a formal partnership or project between Navarrette and the “CoD” franchise is “off the table,” per Bahl, but this event is about having the star “come back and connect with the ‘Call of Duty’ community, given that that’s how she got her start.”
“My older brother started playing ‘CoD’ when I was seven or eight years old, I believe,” Navarrette tells Variety in an email interview. “He started me on ‘Modern Warfare 2.’ We would play Local Party and duo each other. My favorite map was Rust, with my primary being the SCAR and my secondary being the THUMPER … He would usually win.”
Navarrette adds: “For me, ‘Call of Duty’ completely overtakes my mind. There are so many moving parts that you constantly have to keep your head on a swivel. It almost turns off my brain in a way and I don’t think about anything else. It’s also such a nostalgic part of my childhood that I love to return to.”
Along with drawing a connection between sports, pop culture and “CoD,” Activision’s mission this weekend is to capitalize heavily on Fanatics Fest’s location in New York City — a setting in “Modern Warfare 4.” Bahl wants to highlight how much NYC culture, including the Wu-Tang Clan’s music, will be included in the game that’s primarily about a war that breaks out between North and South Korea.
“This game is two stories: One is the South Korean/North Korean narrative, but the other one is our iconic characters of Task Force 141. And [‘Modern Warfare’ character Captain John] Price starts the whole story in New York City, and he’s in a nightclub and he’s on the run but he’s also chasing [‘Warfare’ villain Vladimir] Makarov,” Bahl says. (Don’t worry, he’s not giving anything away ahead of Saturday’s “Modern Warfare 4″ panel — that was featured in previously released footage.)
“So to have that scene in our trailer to be in New York City, with so much going on, it was really serendipitous,” Bahl says. “You have the World Cup final. You have the Knicks winning the championship. We have Yankees-Dodgers going on. We have Jay-Z doing Yankee Stadium. You have Price in New York in [‘Modern Warfare 4’]. I think all of those connections — you have the Wu-Tang connection and stuff — it just made sense for us.”
It’s a bold new strategy for the “Call of Duty” franchise, which has seen lackluster sales over the past few years but appears to have a renewed energy leading into the release of “Modern Warfare 4″ and amid buzz for Taylor Sheridan’s “Call of Duty” movie. Bahl is remaining tight-lipped about any news regarding that Paramount Pictures project, directed by Peter Berg, that might be revealed this weekend.
“There might be a small announcement or association with the film,” Bahl says. “Well, it’s a big announcement for us. I think the fans will be really excited. But I think we’re saving that for Saturday.”
When asked if she’s interested in becoming involved with the “CoD” movie, Navarrette said: “I am excited to see what direction they decide to go. Especially since there are so many stories already inside the game with the campaign aspect. I would love to join as a computer voice for sure!”
