During today's quarterly conference call with investors, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced plans to launch a new development studio, Beachhead, that would in some way be linked to the company's Call of Duty shooter franchise. During the conference call Activision execs stated that Beachhead would be in charge of "the development of an innovative new digital platform and special services for our Call of Duty community."

Specifics about this new studio and the kinds of services it would bring to Call of Duty players have yet to be announced. If this service comes to the PC version of the game we wonder how it will affect Activision's deal with Valve to offer Steamworks features like achievements, leaderboards and more to the PC ports of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops.

In the same conference call Activision announced plans to release a free-to-play Call of Duty game for China but details and a release date were not announced.