Activision finally got around to letting its Call of Duty-inspired cat out of the bag, but this year it'll be abandoning the traditional bi-annual Modern Warfare moniker for something new entirely. Call of Duty: Ghosts was officially revealed yesterday, after leaked promotional materials all but prematurely announced the next iteration of the immensely popular franchise. Now that Activision has cleared the air and confirmed a product that many already saw coming, details pertaining to the title's planned formats and development duties have surfaced.
As many fans are probably well aware of, Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward was severely understaffed following the departure of studio founders Vince West and Frank Zampella, so much so that Activision brought in Sledgehammer Games to help offset the workload of the developer. According to Sledgehammer's official Twitter account, however, the team won't be helping Infinity Ward with Call of Duty: Ghosts — instead Sledgehammer Games is working on its "next project."
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Given that a considerable amount of time has passed since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched in 2011, it makes sense that Infinity Ward has employed enough new staff to once again take on the task of developing a new CoD by itself. This leaves Sledgehammer to either pursue a new intellectual property or tackle another Call of Duty title, but fans probably won't see just what the developer is up to for a while yet.
With next-gen consoles on the horizon, the question regarding which consoles Ghosts will land on was inevitable, but oddly enough there's still no sign of the game making its way to the currently available Wii U. After Black Ops 2 appeared on the system as a launch title, the arrival of future installments on the platform seemed like a given. Fortunately, an official announcement may very well be coming at a later date if a statement from an Activision representative is any indication.
"We don’t have any news for the Wii U at this time, as we aren’t dating next generation platforms yet. Stay tuned."
Developers have held off on unveiling third-party Wii U titles in the past, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a prime example of that, so anyone who owns the console shouldn't be too concerned yet. The fact that Call of Duty: Ghosts' Wii U box art has already surfaced through an online European retailer is also reassuring for Nintendo fans, and a sign that no one should count out the game's appearance on the platform yet. That said, the sooner an official announcement comes the better.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on November 5th.
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Sources: Examiner & Sledgehammer Games (via MP1ST)