Since leaving the World War II era behind, the mega successful Call of Duty franchise has seen its last few games push even further up the timeline. The Modern Warfare and Black Ops trilogies have led to the last few annualized franchise installments exploring near future, sci-fi heavy settings and stories.
The last three games in particular, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 have pushed further and further into the future, embracing advanced, fictional weapons and exo-skeletons, to playable robotic characters and cybernetic enhancements. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised then if 2016’s Call of Duty is set entirely in space.
Seemingly every year Activision’s marketing plans for Call of Duty are spoiled by leaks about their next game, its characters, features, and settings, and 2016 is no different. Eurogamer has the scoop on the next shooter from developer Infinity Ward and claim from their sources that their next game is thankfully not a followup to the disappointing Ghosts - a game that had a negative impact on franchise sales numbers. Instead, Infinity Ward is again attempting to launch another Call of Duty series with a new gimmick: far future, space combat.
The news first came from trusted NeoGAF user Shinobi who’s information that the new COD will be “Full on sci-fi,” “very far future,” and focus on “space combat” was corroborated by Eurogamer’s inside sources. Very little details have been shared so far other than the game will be based around different factions at war in the “far flung future.”
Interestingly enough, this is an idea already experimented with by Infinity Ward who in Ghosts featured zero gravity space shooter gameplay in missions revolving the Orbital Defense Initiative (ODIN) - a space station featured heavily in the COD: Ghosts story. It’s pictured up top and that gameplay can be seen beginning at the 17:00 minute mark of the video up top I recorded a few years ago.
If this is true, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it is and titled something like Call of Duty: Space Warfare, then it squashes previous rumors that Ghosts 2 could become a reality or that Activision could finally have one of its multiple COD developers take gamers back to WWII - a genre that’s not nonexistent among triple-A console shooters.
No date or title have been announced from Activision but expect Infinity Ward’s newest Call of Duty to release in the first week of November. Since Activision is skipping having a booth on the E3 show floor at the Los Angeles trade show this June, expect the unveiling during Sony’s press conference.
Source: Eurogamer
