Activision has not officially said what this year’s Call of Duty will be, but it is getting harder to imagine it being anything other than Modern Warfare 3. The circumstantial case has been building for months, and taken together it points firmly toward a third chapter in the Modern Warfare story landing this fall. Until Activision says so, though, treat all of this as informed speculation rather than fact.
The Call Of Duty Rotation Favors Infinity Ward
Start with the calendar. Activision has kept Call of Duty on a yearly schedule, with Infinity Ward and Treyarch taking turns. Infinity Ward delivered Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, Treyarch followed with World at War in 2008, Infinity Ward returned with Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, and Treyarch shipped Black Ops last November. If the rotation holds, 2011 is Infinity Ward’s year, and Infinity Ward is the Modern Warfare studio.
The story is also unfinished. Modern Warfare 2 closed with Captain Price and Soap MacTavish settling their score with General Shepherd, but Vladimir Makarov, the villain behind the game’s airport massacre, was left at large. That is a loose end Infinity Ward clearly set up to pay off, and a follow up is the natural place to do it.
Turmoil At Infinity Ward And Help From Sledgehammer
The complication is Infinity Ward itself. In March of last year Activision fired studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, and the two sued over unpaid royalties and control of the Modern Warfare brand, with Activision answering with legal action of its own. West and Zampella went on to form Respawn Entertainment under EA’s partners program, and a string of Infinity Ward staff left the studio in the months that followed, many of them joining Respawn. In December, a group of current and former Infinity Ward developers filed their own suit against Activision over bonuses they say they are owed.
That turmoil is why many observers expect Infinity Ward to have help this time. Activision set up Sledgehammer Games in 2009, led by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, who previously worked on Dead Space at EA, and announced at the time that the studio was making a Call of Duty game of its own. Activision has not said whether Sledgehammer’s work is connected to Infinity Ward’s next project. However, a Los Angeles Times report relayed by PCWorld in January claimed, citing unnamed sources, that Infinity Ward is sharing work on Modern Warfare 3 with Sledgehammer, that Raven Software is helping on multiplayer and that the game is aimed at November. Activision has not confirmed any of it, but with a depleted team and a firm yearly deadline, extra hands would not be surprising.
Activision Has Every Reason To Stay The Course
Then there is the money. Call of Duty is Activision’s biggest franchise, Black Ops sold enormously over the holidays, and the publisher has every reason to keep the series on a yearly schedule. A Modern Warfare game, with the brand recognition that comes with it, is the obvious choice to follow Black Ops in the rotation.
None of that is the same as an announcement, and Activision has been careful not to give much away. Previous entries have usually been revealed in the spring, so if Modern Warfare 3 is real, an official unveiling should not be far off.