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Infinity Ward is the original Call of Duty developer, having gotten its start back in 2002 with the very first COD title. Over the past 20 years, the team has worked on nothing aside from the Call of Duty franchise, and with a new version of Modern Warfare 2 slated to launch in October, it sure seems like the team's got its hands full.
That, however, might not be the full truth, judging by a recent Infinity Ward job listing. There, it was revealed that the developer is looking for a new Narrative Director that will help produce an outright unprecedented type of game for the studio, though it's still in the very early stages of pre-production.
It seems like Infinity Ward might wish to look into non-FPS projects sometime in the future, because the job listing in question is specifically looking for a Narrative Director that would work on an unannounced open-world RPG. The game would be a AAA release with a non-linear narrative and would possibly use Infinity Ward's expertise to deliver an experience similar to Call of Duty's more inventive missions and sequences.
The listing specifically mentioned that the unannounced Infinity Ward RPG would still be getting published by Activision and that the ideal candidate would preferably have "proven" experience in producing open-world AAA titles. This implies that Infinity Ward wishes to retain the high production values of Call of Duty, but may also wish to distance itself from the expectations that franchise fans already have.
At the time of writing, Infinity Ward's mysterious job listing has already been filled, though it's worth pointing out that the team does still have another 15 open positions in its Kraków studio. None of them outright reference the unannounced open-world AAA RPG, but it's entirely within reason that at least some of them would be working on it, should it ever come to fruition. In the meantime, Modern Warfare 2 got its intense gameplay demo recently, and it's likely an "all hands on deck" situation at the studio.
As early as it might be to discuss Infinity Ward's unannounced RPG - which might not pan out in the end, it's worth pointing out - Call of Duty's return to Steam means that this game, too, would likely end up getting released on Valve's gaming platform as well. In any case, it will be interesting to see whether Infinity Ward wishes to take a break from COD after Modern Warfare 2 is out, or if the company is merely looking to bolster its portfolio with an original IP.