It's been a pretty hectic week for Call of Duty fans, as we found out some interesting rumors about where the hugely popular first person shooter franchise will be heading and what studios will work on it.
First off, let's do a quick recap, just in case you missed some of the big news.
Wedbush Securities analysis firm revealed in a new report that Activision is set to reveal a
multiplayer-only spinoff title, which will use a subscription service, like World of Warcraft or other multiplayer online games.
Next up, it seems that Activision may also employ the help of another of its development studios,
Raven Software, who will join the pack of existing Call of Duty studios, formed by Infinity Ward (the creator of the series), Treyarch (the team behind the recent Call of Duty: Black Ops) and Sledgehammer Games (who is working on an unannounced Call of Duty project).
Last but most certainly not least, it seems that Infinity Ward's
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 might be an origin story for Ghost, the fan favorite character from Modern Warfare 2, and is set to appear next year.
As you can see, there's a lot of room to speculate about where Call of Duty will be heading this year, so let's put our thinking caps on and try to figure out Activision's master plan regarding its most popular and most profitable franchise.
First off, it's pretty safe to say that
Infinity Ward, in an effort to retain some of its identity, will continue on its "spinoff" Modern Warfare series.
Even with the departure of studio founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, now engaged in
a bitter lawsuit with Activision, the studio is certain to try and prove to everyone that it is still the main Call of Duty studio.
As such, it may be on the right track by trying to develop the unique characters of the series, like with Soap from Modern Warfare 1 who came back in a better way in Modern Warfare 2, so a Ghost origin story may work like a glove.
A
multiplayer-only Call of Duty title has been rumored for quite some time, especially since Activision wants to make as much money as possible from it, so don't be too surprised if the predictions of Wedbush Securities come true.
That doesn't mean a full pledged Call of Duty game won't appear
at the end of the year, however, as it’s probably time for
Sledgehammer Games to showcase what
it has been working on, especially since the recently founded studio is made out of the ambitious former leaders of EA's Visceral Games team.
Treyarch has earned a lot of respect last year with Black Ops, even if there were some problems on platforms other than the Xbox 360, so we won't hear a lot about the studio in the next few years.
Raven Software, however, is rumored to be working on quite a few projects, from James Bond to continuing its Singularity IP, but a new Call of Duty game can't be ruled out.
As you can see, Activision's studios may be working extremely hard to keep Call of Duty profitable in the following years.
So, what projects do we think the development teams are working on? Here's our wild guesses.
Infinity Ward, as we've said, is certain to be working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Treyarch is also set to continue its
historical Call of Duty titles, and probably expand on the Cold War theme.
Sledgehammer Games' project is still a mystery, but it may either be a Call of Duty: Future Warfare, given the previous experience on Dead Space, or this new multiplayer-only game.
Raven Software, if it is in fact working on a Call of Duty title, may opt to use its out-of-the-box thinking to develop a parallel history game, using sci-fi themes found in Singularity or the recent Wolfenstein titles.
These are our speculations, but feel free to add in your own by leaving a comment below.
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