Though the PlayStation Vita handheld doesn't release in earnest until Wednesday, many gamers are already looking past the console's tepid launch line-up and towards the titles of the future. While popular franchises like Mortal Kombat and Resistance are gearing to make their debut, one franchise's announcement as coming to the handheld will certainly be, as Senior VP of Sony Brand Marketing Guy Longworth puts it, a "game changer."

That franchise of course is none other than Call of Duty, the juggernaut series that year-to-year continues to outdo itself and hit more and more sales benchmarks. While Longworth couldn't add any more information to the announcement he did confirm it should be releasing this year.

Calling this Call of Duty Vita title a "game changer for the platform," however, has its intriguing qualities, but more so leaves a lot open to misinterpretation. While most fans of the series would expect Call of Duty for the Vita to be a game changer in terms of its revolutionary qualities, the more likely scenario is the amount of units it will move simply by name alone.

Just last year, Modern Warfare 3 once again topped Black Ops claim to the biggest entertainment launch in history and while Call of Duty for the Vita won't achieve that status, even a small share of that pie could do wonders for both handheld and software sales.

Still, this Call of Duty for the Vita, which has a very real possibility of being a port of Black Ops 2, could provide a new dimension to the series' core appeal with on-the-go competitive multiplayer keeping players even more engrossed in the experience they love so much. Will it be as fully featured or have as large of a player base as its console counterpart? Probably not, but once again, even pulling a small percentage of the largest gaming population can yield some big results.

Keep on the look out for more news regarding this Call of Duty Vita title perhaps alongside the announcement of the next console Call of Duty.

Would you be interested in a port of the next Call of Duty entry on the Vita? How would you like to see Treyarch utilize the Vita's unique features?

Source: Game Trailers (via Gamasutra)