Hold onto your hats, first-person shooter fans, because it looks like selling millions of copies of Modern Warfare 2 has convinced Activision to keep the Call of Duty franchise going, with the next game planned for a late-2010 release.
Rumors have pegged the next edition moving out of WW2 entirely, with Vietnam often cited as the next destination. It looks like developer Treyarch may be taking the reigns once more, continuing the trend of alternating development duties shared with Infinity Ward. Of course, none of this comes as much of a surprise, given the publisher's love of annual sequels to existing franchises. What was surprising, at least for the non-cynics out there, was the persistant rumor that Activision may attempt to further monetize the franchise by introducing some kind of subscription-fee to the service.
A subscription-based Call of Duty? Say it ain't so, Joe! Keep reading for more hypothetics and unnecessary conjecture!
Comments made by the publisher's CEO Bobby Kotick during the company's financial earnings conference call only served to add more fuel to the fire, hinting the franchise may follow their own World of Warcraft:
"If you think about the success that we've had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise,"
While developer Infinity Ward has done their best to nip such wild speculation in the bud, they're still just a developer, and not the only one working on the Call of Duty franchise. Whether or not we'll be seeing a subscription-based online change is entirely up to Activision. Whether fans will accept by playing, however, remains in our own hands.
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