More evidence of three new CODs

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 March, 2010

Analyst makes strong distinction.

Analysts have given us more reason to believe suspicions that yesterday's Call of Duty reshuffle announcement was heralding three new games in the blockbuster series and not just two.

GameSpot reports that analysts have interpreted the ambiguous release wording or received other information to the effect that the 2011 Call of Duty and Sledgehammer Games' new action-adventure are separate titles.

The wording of the release, which had already noted that Treyarch is making a Call of Duty game due out in 2010, was: "The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre."

Some took that to mean the 2011 game and Sledgehammer's project were one and the same, but others were less certain.

Activision also spoke about its ambition to take COD to new markets, including Asia, and experiment with "high-margin digital online content", "new genres" and "new digital business models". A download-only spectroscopic 3D kart racer, then.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Razz #1 2 years ago

    I reckon the action adventure title is a on rails light gun game for Wii, Arc and possibly Natal.

  • mintycabbage #2 2 years ago

    An action-adventure from the COD series! Hmm maybe other developers should make series cross genres. Final fantasy 15 should totally be a space sim.

  • MiniAmin #3 2 years ago

    12 games in 7 years was already a prolific output for the series, and Infinity Ward won't be involved either?

    R.I.P Call of Duty 2003 - 2010

  • coolbritannia #4 2 years ago

    Seriously, fuck this.

  • convercide #5 2 years ago

    They're going the way of EA in the early 2000s. :/

    What next, Road to Modern Warfare 3?

  • Wolverfrog #6 2 years ago

    Oh dear God. Call of Duty is going the way of Tomb Raider.

  • matrim83 #7 2 years ago

    I wonder if this will affect other modern war games as well. I mean if Acti saturate the market with these shitty shooters surely other genuinely good games will start to look and feel common as well.

    EA pretty much fucked the entire WW2 shooter genre. I can see the same happening here as well.

  • TheEraser #8 2 years ago

    so when is Call Of Duty 11 out

  • convercide #9 2 years ago

    @TheEraser

    Oooooooh, I can haz beta key?

  • Freek #10 2 years ago

    Remember how you ran the Guitar Hero brand into the ground? No, I geuse you don't...

  • Waffleaber #11 2 years ago

    Oh come on now, you're just reporting an analyst making the same assertion you yourselves made when you reported this cod story earlier today!

  • dacicus #12 2 years ago

    Actually, Infinity Ward did only 4 games: COD 1, 2, MW1 and MW2. The expansions were developed by third parties. RIP COD....

  • Thornhillboy #13 2 years ago

    So Modern Warfare 2 is phenomenally succesful, and lauded in most places...yes everyone who has commented is bemoaning the death of the series?

  • NewbieZilla #14 2 years ago

    "So Modern Warfare 2 is phenomenally succesful, and lauded in most places...yes everyone who has commented is bemoaning the death of the series?"

    Think about what you just said, and maybe the penny will drop. Oh, just in case it is too out of reach for you, it was the developer behind the good CoD (games), Infinity Ward. Less involvement of them, or possibly no involvement of them in the series, yeah, it is kind of understandable where people are concerned. If you have a brain, that is.
    Edited by NewbieZilla at 03/03/10 @ 22:06

  • Eraysor #15 2 years ago

    "So Modern Warfare 2 is phenomenally succesful, and lauded in most places...yes everyone who has commented is bemoaning the death of the series?"

    Considering Activision have fired the two main people in IW, and the fact that the CoD franchise has been diluted by other developers (and is about to be diluted further) I would say it's a reasonable assessment.

    Plus, it's Activision.

  • Fab4 #16 2 years ago

    CoD was not diluted by other developers. Treyarch, whenever they weren't being railroaded by Activision to make game clones, brought a different approach to the series. One that many found enjoyable. Now we are left with the same game being made every year with different skins on it. CoD died the day they decided to make WaW a WW2 copy of MW.

  • BadBoyBonner #17 2 years ago

    MW 2 is not as good as MW 1 in my opinion. It seems to have been designed for SD mono TV's.

    The levels are very confined compared to MW2 and WAW for that matter. The heartbeat Sensor is like a campers delight. The sound in MW2 is barely stereo and not a patch on the directional sound stage MW1 offered. That's before even mentioning the Marathon+Lightfoot+Commando shenanigans.

    I think Infinity Ward unbalanced the game a little on purpose allowing the (inevitable) break away team to announce a back to grass roots game for their first MP release.

    Alternatively, Valve would do well in poaching the Infinity Ward team and give them the Counter Strike franchise/name to develop. As IMO MW1 was the natural successor to Counter Strike.
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 03/03/10 @ 22:53

  • NewbieZilla #18 2 years ago

    "I think Infinity Ward unbalanced the game a little on purpose allowing the (inevitable) break away team to announce a back to grass roots game for their first MP release."

    Do you like your tinfoil hat or is it purely for perceived practical reasons?

  • BadBoyBonner #19 2 years ago


    "Do you like your tinfoil hat or is it purely for perceived practical reasons?"

    While under the protection from electromagnetism due to the hat I will also throw in the 1881 shotgun fiasco that also came as a complete shock with every single play-tester failing to notice it's crazy balancing issue?

    Next you'll be telling me that sub HD aliased Halo 3 looks far better than Halo reach and that suggesting otherwise also requires a tin foil hat to be worn....

    Or are you suggesting that the Guys at Infinity Ward never had the slightest idea that the suits at Activision were ever troubled by any of their actions and that their ousting came as a complete surprise?

    Pull the other one. Seems like a massive internal power struggle has come to a head. Activision are acting like cocks which IW probably suspected they would do.

    Lets be honest. If the game you have launched is NUmber 1 for weeks on end and the media reports it has raked in a billion dollars while you haven't received a single penny in royalties. I am sure you would suspect something was afoot.

  • NewbieZilla #20 2 years ago

    "Lets be honest. If the game you have launched is NUmber 1 for weeks on end and the media reports it has raked in a billion dollars while you haven't received a single penny in royalties. I am sure you would suspect something was afoot."

    Activision were throwing accusations of breach of contract at those sacked. Normally, bonuses/royalties are all part of a contract, so there would have been a timeline in place for when said royalties/bonuses would be paid. So, either whatever timeline that had been contractually stipulated has not been met, or maybe the royalties/bonuses was not dealt with in the contract (which makes my mind boggle).

    If it is the case that there was royalties not being paid, I would have expected the two who were sacked to have counter sued at the point litigation was brought up as an avenue for Activision. That this has not happened is telling, really.

    Oh, before it looks like I have sympathy for the Activision bleed it till it has less blood than a stone approach to franchises, let me make perfectly clear that this is not the case.

  • darth_paul #21 2 years ago

    WHOOOHooooooo... milk it, milk it, milk it, till the cow drops dead =)
    in 10 years time, the COD franchise will enter the histroy books under: "the greatest IP-F***up" in history by a publisher" :p
    Edited by darth_paul at 04/03/10 @ 00:52

  • Collymilad #22 2 years ago

    The sad thing is people will still buy these, and Activision will get the wrong message.

  • metallicorphan #23 2 years ago

    and everytime one of these COD titles are out,Activision will still put the price up each time,tossers

  • Mickeman #24 2 years ago

    Cannot wait for "COD COD Revolution" the dance shooter!!! Seriously, they are rushing it out before the 2010 holidays :)

  • M4RV #25 2 years ago

    No doubt Activision's full-time hobby is to royally screw up every single viable franchise they have in their catalog... I can hardly believe that back when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite publishers.

    * shakes head *

  • BadBoyBonner #26 2 years ago

    "Activision were throwing accusations of breach of contract at those sacked. Normally, bonuses/royalties are all part of a contract, so there would have been a timeline in place for when said royalties/bonuses would be paid. So, either whatever timeline that had been contractually stipulated has not been met, or maybe the royalties/bonuses was not dealt with in the contract (which makes my mind boggle)."

    I feel sure your first line of reasoning is what we have here. Contractual obligations are no doubt in dispute. Probably issues of insubordination of a reasonable request or some such.

    I also feel that Robert Bowling coming out to state that Infinity Ward made the game for much less than the budget they were offered is also a part of this dispute. Although I am unsure if it was a pre-emptive strike by Infinity Ward or something that Activision would now seek to use i.e. with a bigger budget a better game would have been made and thus more money.

  • X3Entente #27 2 years ago

    @mintycabbage
    a Final Fantasy space sim would rock though
    Anyway i have a suggestion for activision (you cunts), make a Tony Hawk: Modern Warfare, plz. The game is set among growing tensions between the NATO and the Kremlin, against a backdrop of covert politcal assassinstions, shadow ops and clandestine deniable warfare, YOU play as the governments latest hi tech weapon, an special forces skateboard soldier, as part of the Elite 101st Special Extreme sports warfare divison. You can perform ollies and flips to take out those ruskies, and can destroy tanks by performing grinds on them. Also the Commander of the US forces is General Tony Hawk himself, and at one point in the game he will betray and set alight one of the playble characters, and there will be a controversal mission where you have skateboard through an airport and try to bump into enough innocent civilians to trigger a war. I'm not being sarcastic, i really want this game to exist

  • metalangel #28 2 years ago

    @X3Entente: Me too, now. I can already see how the tank bit would work. Every part of the tank you land a successful grind on, falls off. Grind the main gun, it falls off. Grind the tread covers, they fall off. Fill a bar up and the tank grinds to a halt and explodes.

    And hey! They already have an airport level from (THPS2, wasn't it?) to use for the 'bump into people' bit!

  • Alkeno #29 2 years ago

    Farm of Duty: Modern Cropfare. Only on facebook.