modern-warfare-3 posts

It usually happens about this time every year and it looks like it may be happening again this year. No, not the start of spring training but the first glimpse of the next game in the Call of Duty shooter series. A new web site, Findmakarov.com, has been spotted with a countdown clock that would suggest something is going to happen on Wednesday.

The web site address suggests the reveal is linked to the Modern Warfare spin-off of Call of Duty (Vladimir Makarov is one of the series' main bad guys). That would also suggest the game that will be revealed on Wednesday will indeed be Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. At the moment publisher Activision has only officially said there will be some kind of Call of Duty game that is due out this fall.

[Via VG247.com]

Update: Activision is now telling our sister site Joystiq that it has nothing to do with the countdown web site, nor with the mailing of dogtags to members of the media. However the countdown clock is clearly for something; we just don't know what.

Activision's biggest game franchise by far is the Call of Duty franchise and everyone expects a new game in the series to be released by November of 2011. Now a report from the Los Angeles Times claims that the next game in the shooter series will indeed be Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and that three development teams are working on it.

According to the report, which does not name its sources, the game's main developer Infinity Ward is getting help on the single player campaign from another in-house developer Sledgehammer Games. Infinity Ward apparently needed the help since much of the team left the studio in 2010 following the firing of the studio's founders by Activision. In addition, the article claims that another developer, Raven Software, is handling the multiplayer portions of Modern Warfare 3. The downside? A Call of Duty spin-off game from Sledgehammer Games is now on hold while the team helps Infinity Ward.

In related news, our sister site Joystiq has all of the new and gory details of the current legal battle between Activision and Infinity Ward's former heads Vince Zampella and Jason West. In short, the court has now officially added Electronic Arts as a defendant in Activision's lawsuit against the duo.

If you though the current court fight between Activision and the now ex-founders of Infinity Ward could get any more complicated, you were wrong. The Los Angeles Times web site is now reporting that 21 former and 18 current (yes, current) employees of the Modern Warfare 2 developer have filed their own lawsuit against Activision, claiming the publisher owes the members of the development team $118 million in bonus money based on the massive sales of the first person shooter.

According to their lawsuit, "Activision engaged in this inappropriate course of conduct in an attempt to force employees of Infinity Ward to continue to work at a job that many of them did not want just so Activision could force them to complete the development, production and delivery of Modern Warfare 3." Activision has responded to the lawsuit, saying it it without merit and adding, "Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for [Modern Warfare 2] and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times." The article states that this new lawsuit could be combined with the suit that's already been filed against Activision by the developer's co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella.

It's always a good day when a juicy rumor hits the interwebs and this one is a particularly interesting one. VG247.com is reporting through unnamed sources that developer Infinity Ward is going to take a pass on making the next Modern Warfare game and instead work on a all new game project.

The story doesn't go into detail on what that new game might be but it claims its anonymous sources have said Modern Warfare 3 might go to the newly established Sledgehammer Games or an unnamed Canadian studio. Meanwhile Infinity Ward is expected to release the first downloadable content for Modern Warfare 2 this spring for the Xbox 360 version.