According to a job listing posted by Activision, Infinity Ward is hiring for an unannounced title slated for next gen-consoles. Chances are, it’s Call of Duty related.
The job in question is for a Senior Network Engineer. Candidates must be able to build network code and need to have some experience with peer-to-peer matchmaking. Unsurprisingly, this means Infinity Ward’s next game will have some sort of multiplayer component. Applicants must have an “interest in games, preferably first person shooters.” This supports the theory that the job posting relates to a next-gen Call of Duty, which we speculated to be in development when the last job listing appeared.
Now that Infinity Ward has wrapped up Soap and Captain Price’s story with Modern Warfare 3, it’ll be interesting to see if the developer’s next game will be Modern Warfare 4, or something with a different setting and/or subtitle. Considering the Modern Warfare brand is a big seller, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Activision continue the series, and Modern Warfare 3‘s ending certainly left enough room to work with.
Considering that this will be an Infinity Ward-developed title, the game will likely launch in 2013 — Treyarch’s Black Ops 2 will release this holiday, and the two studios alternate releases each year. If the game is set to launch on next-gen consoles, that means the PS4 and/or Xbox 720 could be available by November 2013. However, both Sony and Microsoft insist they will not show anything at E3 next week. It’s possible then that the “next-gen” in the job posting could refer to the Wii U, Nintendo’s new console launching later this year.
Activision also has two other developers working on the Call of Duty series: Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. It’s possible Sledgehammer could be working on a Call of Duty game for 2013, while Infinity Ward holds off on releasing its title until 2014. Or perhaps Sledgehammer and Raven will take the reigns while Infinity Ward crafts a new IP — it’s unlikely, but certainly possible.
The Call of Duty franchises has been a big seller for Activision — so big, in fact, that the publisher has paid Infinity Ward over $493 million in bonuses since 2003, even for games it did not directly develop. For example, Infinity ward received $46 million because Black Ops used some of its tech.
It’ll be interesting to see what next-gen will bring for the Call of Duty franchise. Improved network infrastructures and increased RAM should allow the series to better operate as a service, including Call of Duty: ELITE. While the current games in the franchise run at sixty frames per second, the graphics are beginning to look dated, and more powerful consoles should allow developers to retain a smooth framerate without sacrifcing visual quality.
Ranters, what do you want from a next-gen Call of Duty?
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Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyMole.
Source: Activision, Polygon
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they have no one left in the studio anymore, most left with zampella and west and the remaining staff are morons b/c they dont know how to make a game (hence why mw3 was literally 80% copy/paste of mw2).
just let the damn studio die activision and let someone with real talent and understanding of game dev take over.
Well considering dead lines and all the crap that was going on during MW3s development, what’d you expect?
Call of Duty will be huge next-gen. What do I want to see? I want to see them expand on everything, bigger and better. Everyone wants more customization, give us old maps for FREE. Minor tweaks here and there.
Female soldier lead character? It would be a great POV how she interacts with others male soldiers, challenged in pride over ranks from a bullheaded sexist male on the team, and their behaviors in taking orders from a female in command, plus bring more female gamers into a character they can relate to. A female soldier character like the lead character in Heywire would be very entertaining for both genders. BF3 had a female copilot that you controlled for one mission. I’m just thinking what they can do thats different. Maybe go back to WW2 with a Inglourious Basterds themed special team.
MOH already did it.
Did what? What part of what I said are you reffering too?
The part about the female soldier lead character.
Call of Duty also did it with Finest Hour in 2004, you played as multiple soldiers one of whom was a female soviet sniper. Though it probably would be nice to see a female in the SF role, it should be interesting.
Not to mention the randomly level spawning female soviet soldiers in Call of Duty 2.
Then the female Marine Cobra pilot from Call of Duty 4, then the female A-10 pilot/gunner from MW3.