It's no secret that Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most anticipated games of this year. With DICE's Battlefield 3 making a huge splash, everyone wants to know just how Activision plans on stepping up to the plate in an effort to compete, especially since some players fear that the Call of Duty formula may be starting to get a little stale.

Thankfully, the drought of news about the next addition to the Call of Duty franchise may soon be over. In a recent radio interview with talkSPORT Craig Fairbass, the voice of Ghost in Modern Warfare 2 discussed his work for the Modern Warfare games and described a recent trip to Los Angeles where he was working on an undisclosed game, quite possibly Modern Warfare 3.

"I did Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as Gaz and then I did Ghost in Modern Warfare 2, which has become one of the most iconic figures in the history of computer games, which is great. And I've just been out in LA doing something that's going to be announced in May...  I've just been out there doing some bits and pieces and one of it's to do with... I can't say too much."

This could be the first real substantial news we've heard in the direction of Modern Warfare 3, and a possible confirmation that Ghost will be making a return in the sequel. Bits and pieces seems to sound like smaller roles, so there's some more credence to the theory that Ghost's return could be a more minor role set in some kind of flashback, a'la Captain Price in Modern Warfare's level 'All Ghillied Up.'

As for the May announcement, this would be in keeping with a couple of events. Next monday Activision is set to release the financial results of its first quarter this year and with those should come some news about their plans for the rest of the year. With E3 just around the corner, this would be a great opportunity for Activision to reveal that Modern Warfare 3 will be making a big showing at the year's biggest gaming event.

Modern Warfare 3 was first rumored as a Ghost-centric game back in January, and since then there have been other reports to lend credence to the story. It's also been reported that Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software have both been brought on board to help work on the next title to come from main Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward.

As for Fairbass' most recent trip to L.A., he had a lot to say about the studio there and how completely impressed he was by the game development process.

"You do like five, six, seven sessions and they record it in this great big studio in Los Angeles, which is absolutely mental. I was out there from January to the end of February [and] Activision took me to their hub, I was a guest for the day, and they took me all around and they showed me the game - you know, these games are like $200 million to produce. It's incredible. This place was like the size of 10 factories, there was all these people working."

While his stated figure of $200 million may be exaggerated, it may stem from a general impression left by a big crew working on a big game. It's likely that Activision really is in full production mode for Modern Warfare 3 (or whatever the next game is called), and this could be the proof we've been looking for that there's been a massive amount of manpower dedicated to the task of making it the best Call of Duty game yet.

Modern Warfare 3 is expected to release in 2011, and if it keeps with the current release schedule for Call of Duty titles, its release date will fall in the first two weeks of November, most likely on the second tuesday, which would place its release on the 8th of that month.

Source: CVG