Yesterday, it was widely reported that British actor Bill Murray, best known to game fans as the voice of Modern Warfare’s Captain Price, had revealed the existence of Modern Warfare 4, under development by Infinity Ward.
The news didn’t exactly catch anyone by surprise. After all, development duties for the Call of Duty series have alternated between Infinity Ward and Treyach since 2006′s Call of Duty 3. With Treyarch’s Black Ops 2 set to release on November 13th, the next game – quite possibly the first CoD for Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles – should logically belong to Infinity Ward, and nearly everyone expects that game to be Modern Warfare 4. There is one small hitch, however: Infinity Ward claims it isn’t true.
A quick recap: Jason Andrews, founder of the website ThisIsXbox, happened to be travelling on the same plane as Murray. As a self-professed “massive, MASSIVE fan” of the Modern Warfare games, Andrews recognized Murray’s voice and approached the actor, who proceeded to spill the proverbial beans about Modern Warfare 4. That the two met is not in question; a photograph of Andrews and Murray accompanies the original post on ThisIsXbox.
Word of the actor’s admission eventually made its way to Infinity Ward, and the studio quickly took to Twitter to post a denial. But what, exactly, is Infinity Ward denying?
Interesting news today, but it’s not true.We’ve not talked with any voice actors, so all news is speculation.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) October 30, 2012
Conspicuously absent from the tweet is a clear statement along the lines of “Modern Warfare 4 is not currently in development” – Infinity Ward is simply claiming not to have had any conversations with voice actors. For the record, in his article, Andrews stated that Murray would “be in discussions with Activision and Infinity Ward about his vocal involvement in Modern Warfare 4″ next Monday, November 5th.
There is, of course, the possibility that Andrews’ story is apocryphal; that Murray never said anything about Modern Warfare 4. Asked on Twitter whether the whole story was simply made up, Infinity Ward Community Coordinator Candice Capen offered the following:
@jarsh019 idk, I wasn’t there =) but I do know us nor ATVI has spoken to him at all since MW3.
— Candice Capen (@candyslexia) October 30, 2012
What do you think is going on here, Ranters? Did Andrews make it all up? Did Murray speak too freely, too soon? Is it simply that Activision doesn’t want Call of Duty fans focusing their attention of Modern Warfare 4 until the Black Ops 2 money train has run out of steam? Whatever the case may be, I’d be willing to bet this isn’t the last we’ll hear about Modern Warfare 4.
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Follow me on Twitter @HakenGaken.
Source: @InfinityWard [via CVG], ThisIsXbox
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Of course he didn’t make up the story. I’m sure it’s exactly what the last paragraph suggests, that Activision just doesn’t want people focusing on anything other than Black Ops 2 right now. That’s too bad for them, though, because Halo 4 releases a week prior, and Halo will take its rightful place on the Xbox FPS throne once again, just as every major Halo game has before it (not counting Reach).
BO2 will still top Halo 4 on Xbox 360. CoD’s fanbase is just too large.
Idk it’s a big fanbase thats for sure. But it is also multiplatform so with that in mind I think halo has a chance to top BO2 this winter on Xbox.
It doesn’t matter. CoD has an absolutely ginormous fanbase. It doesn’t matter what platform, it’s always #1.
like unbuild said, these s***heads are denying it b/c it isn’t the right time to erect the d***s of the fanboys
heck, one could go so far as to predict when the CoD after mw4 is gonna be released and what it will be called and chances are they’ll be right
jwalka strikes again…
Dun dun duuun!
Can some one tell me why his hand is on his lap?
I was wondering the same thing.
It’s not his lap, it’s the chair.
Truthfully, it’s hard to tell which one is the real story. But both ideas are logical. Because COD is so huge, people will say things that cause that often cause speculation, like when the rumors went around that MW3 would be a prequel. Then again, Activision could be just trying to cover it up, because it seems someone always lets it out, like when they tried to cover Black Ops II up when it was revealed to be in development.
Yeah in regards to the above, my hand was on the chair and Billy Murray put his hand forward when the pic was taken…
My story is and was true, I was expecting denials, but there’s also other leaks out now to confirm that Voice Over work is currently being done on the next Call of Duty which IS a Modern Warfare game… so
if Infinity Ward are not lying when they say they haven’t spoke to him, then the game must be being made from another development team.
Sources in LA leaked to Siliconera and CVG confirming voice work is and did start when I was told it was by Murray. It’s not like anyone didn’t know it was coming… it’s just a nuisance when they deny something we all know is true.
Even Billy Murray backtracked twice on his twitter @BillyAMurray stating he actually told me nothing, then came a tweet saying he then told me it was a MW game for China, and then later came a tweet saying he couldn’t have been meeting anyone.
They just made themselves look idiots when all they could have said was “no comment”
It’s the man himself. :O
Haha, yeah… I did tell him about the cleaning TV show I worked on from 2004 – 2009 in the UK with Channel 4 where I had to wear a silly long white coat in the background for years… he wasn’t over interested though.
Why not? That’s much more fascinating than being the voice actor of one of the main characters of the best-selling entertainment franchise of all time.