Rumors: Infinity Ward working on an MMO, not doing MW3; CoD7 set in Vietnam @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on January 07, 2010

News: Wow, a whole mess of Call of Duty rumors surfaced today.

A trio of rumors concerning the future of Infinity Ward and the future of the Call of Duty have begun swirling around the tubes today.

VG247 started the rumor ball rolling when they reported that sources inside Infinity Ward told them the CoD originator would not be developing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Instead, the sources claim that the developer is working on something "completely new".

This jives with a quote VG247 pulled up from Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling, who told IGN in October, "Right now we don't have a clue what our next game is going to be, and we won't know what it will be until we finish with Modern Warfare 2, which won't be for a while."

VG247 would go on to quote further industry sources with conflicting reports about just who is developing MW3. One source claims a Canadian developer has taken over the project (Activision owns Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment) while another stated that newly-formed studio Sledgehammer Games is working on the highly anticipated sequel.

So what is Infinity Ward working on? According to Destructoid, the developer is actually trying their hand at an MMO. Citing "industry sources", the blog is claiming that IW has poached some major development talent from Sony Online Entertainment (including the lead designer on Everquest II and Blizzard.

Destructoid's sources did not say if this MMO project was the long-rumored Call of Duty MMO, but it would definitely explain why Infinity Ward has stepped back from the development of Modern Warfare 3.

One day we know about the Call of Duty franchise for sure is that a new entry in the series is almost guaranteed to be released this year. And CVG is claiming that the game will be known as Call of Duty: Vietnam.

A CoD game set during the Vietnam War is not a new rumor, but the game industry's growing distaste for World War II makes it unlikely Activision will tap that well for a fifth time. So a change of venue makes complete sense for the series.

According to CVG, this off-year CoD title will once again be developed by Treyarch and it will feature inspiration from the films Apocalypse Now and Platoon. Their source, a senior person in the UK game industry, has even gone so far as to give the game a November release date.

"It's going to be November again - just as with World At War and Modern Warfare 2. Activision believes that it can own Christmas 2010, just as it has in the last two years." they told CVG.

Of course, predicting a new Call of Duty game will be released in November and that it will be a huge blockbuster doesn't require a crystal ball (or deep industry contacts) these days.

Whatever happens with Infinity Ward in particular and the Call of Duty franchise in general, we'll have more soon.