Yes, Infinity Ward's Next Is a Call of Duty

Shacknews was the first place I saw to report that yesterday's analyst-oriented Activision Blizzard event spilled the beans on the nature of Infinity Ward's next release. Are you ready for this? It's another Call of Duty game. I'll let you absorb the magnitude of that concept for just a minute. Radical idea, I know. This puts to bed the persistent rumors that IW might be working on a new, possibly sci-fi-themed intellectual property, or perhaps even partnering with Blizzard in some capacity, now that the two are both part of the same corporate mega-conglomerate. (That second one was more wishful thinking than anything, really. Imagine an IW-developed StarCraft Ghost reimagined as a first-person shooter. YESPLSKTHX.)

CEO of Activision Publishing Mike Griffith referred to the game as "Call of Duty 6" at the event, but since World at War was consistently called COD5 for a while early on, you know this title will eventually turn into something catchier, more marketable. Something like... Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2? Actually, that raises the important question: even though it's a COD game, will it pick up where 4 left off with more modern military shenanigans in the Middle East? Since COD4 was a runaway sales success, do you think you can you stomach a decade of modern-military-in-the-Middle-East-themed shooters, with that milieu getting run into the ground the same way we've come to be totally sick of World War II? I don't think I can.

Infinity Ward is clearly at the top of the FPS game these days, so I'd like to see Activision give them the space to stretch their legs and try on different settings with each game. What about you? Where else do you think they could go, now that they've nailed the whole Modern Warfare thing?