To no surprise, a new Call of Duty is coming this fall from Treyarch and rumor has it that it's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, a direct sequel to the pre-Modern Warfare 3 best selling game ever. The news came from a mix of obvious speculation and a marketing ploy accidental posting on Amazon France which listed the game for pre-order.

Activision had that fixed amidst controversy, but today we have another related rumor pointing towards a potential Black Ops 2 release date.

We can blame the French for this one too as the rumored release date first appeared on retailer Fnac's website, and was screengrabbed by Gamepur before being taken down. Check out the image below which points towards a possible November 12, 2012 release date for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Let's take a look back at the release dates of previous Call of Duty installments:

  • Modern Warfare 3 - November 8, 2011
  • Black Ops - November 9, 2010
  • Modern Warfare 2 - November 10, 2009
  • World at War - November 11, 2008
  • Modern Warfare - November 5, 2007
  • Call of Duty 3 - November 7, 2006
  • Call of Duty 2 - November 17, 2005
  • Call of Duty - October 29, 2003

Notice a pattern?

The only issue with the November 12 date is that it falls on a Monday and retail games launch on Tuesdays. Let's just say Black Ops 2 is coming out November 13 and call it a day.

If this is true, no surprise - The last four Call of Duty games released that week each year. It's the reason other game publishers dread the month of November and the reason why we see delays and games coming out in October instead (See: Battlefield 3, BioShock Infinite, Medal of Honor: Warfighter).

If it's totally unsubstantiated, then Fnac (like Amazon France) is taking a page out of GameStop's book of creating listings for unannounced and unconfirmed games for the publicity.

Either way, expect a massive leak to spoil Activision's marketing plans early like with Modern Warfare 3 and if not, we'll see it all unveiled at E3 2012 this summer.

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Source: Gamepur