Leaked box art pegs the next CoD game as Call of Duty: Ghosts

By Anthony John Agnello April 24, 2013

While rumors from the past twelve months have suggested that Activision’s going to keep its milk cow rotation going with an Infinity Ward developed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, leaked images suggest that this fall is going to spice things up for the first time since 2010 with the new series Call of Duty: Ghosts.

As spotted by the Call of Duty fansite Charlie Intel (credit to them for the images) and Kotaku, two retail listings for Call of Duty: Ghosts spilled the beans early. The United Kingdom’s Tesco put up listings for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. Meanwhile here in the good old USA, a flyer for Target was boasting a promotion where customers could save money on certain games by preordering Call of Duty: Ghosts, which would be released on Nov. 5.

Activision is, naturally, mum on the subject of Ghosts. With signs pointing to growing market saturation for the billion dollar franchise, now’s certainly the time for Activision to spice up the series, regardless of the console transition that’s underway. We do know that the series isn’t undergoing a full technology overhaul just yet as Infinity Ward was still looking for programmers with id Tech history, suggesting that it’s not ready to abandon or overhaul the IW Engine that’s been powering the Call of Duty franchise since 2005.

It’s not impossible that this move is just for branding purposes, though. Voice actor Bill Murray said in October that he was meeting with Infinity Ward to reprise his role of Captain Price from the Modern Warfare games. Later in December, lines from an allegedly leaked script included references to past experiences in Phuket, Thailand, which was featured in Modern Warfare 3. With analysts tracking declines in total Call of Duty sales, Activision may have decided to simply rename Infinity Ward’s next game in the series.

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Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

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