Modern Warfare 4 Not Confirmed?

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