There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and an annual Call of Duty, something which Activision has confirmed for next year, despite that the latest Call of Duty title, Ghosts, only released for current generation platforms earlier this week.
"Despite short-term uncertainties, as we look forward to 2014, we have a very strong product pipeline," said Bobby Kotick, Activision's CEO, President, and Director, during a Q3 2013 earnings call. "We expect multiple new releases across our major franchises, including the first Diablo III expansion, Reaper of Souls, along with the PS4 version of Diablo III and significant and exciting new content for World of Warcraft. We also expect to launch new Call of Duty and Skylanders titles and a major new potential franchise with Bungie's Destiny."
Early speculation Ghosts had the game marked as a new chapter in the Modern Warfare franchise. Perhaps that's where Activision is going to next? Hard to say, as the publisher hasn't made any official announcement concerning another CoD game save that there will be one.
Going along with the Modern Warfare theme, it's also thought that Sledgehammer could return to develop the new CoD game. The studio helmed the last game in the series, 2011's Modern Warfare 3, and was looking to hire additional staff roughly a year ago, specifically, a "Senior Environment Artist." The ad mentioned it was specifically for Sledgehammer's Call of Duty development team.
Similarly, over the summer, Sledgehammer's lead VFX artist, Rob Valdivia posted on his Linkedin profile that he was "responsible for developing photo real visual effects for the next Call of Duty Modern Warfare release." The profile was pulled shortly thereafter.
Given it's so early, nothing's official, but we'll keep you posted if anything concrete comes to light.
Call of Duty: Ghosts is out now for PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U. The game takes place in a near future following an attack from space that leaves Los Angeles virtually wiped out, and the United States' infrastructure devastated. Years later, the country is invaded by a new superpower, a conglomerate of South American nations calling itself the "Federation." What's left of America's special forces have come together to form the titular "Ghosts," and it's up to them to wage guerrilla warfare against the Federation in order to protect what remains of the United States, and drive the Federation out.
Beyond the campaign, gamers are also expecting a lot from the game's multiplayer mode, which promises a slew of different customization options for weapons, character camos, and more. Over 30 new weapons have been confirmed, alongside old favorites like the UMP45 and the M4A1.
Players are able to peek around cover while still being able to fire, automatically mantle objects, and customize their character. Players are also able to activate environmental hazards, rather than the hazards automatically activating without player interference. It will also allow players to do some hidden sub-missions which will result in new twists in the campaign storyline.
Despite not getting the best reviews ever for a Call of Duty game, Ghosts was a hit right out of the game, grabbing a billion dollars in sales in its first day of release. It will be available as a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One when the consoles release later this month.