Join me now on a journey through the murkier corners of internet rumour land, regarding vague rumblings that Activision could be planning another Call of Duty remake.
The story goes that Activision intend to remaster Modern Warfare 2 to complement the next main Call of Duty release, in the same way that Modern Warfare was a cheeky bonus that came with Infinite Warfare.
I need to stress that these reports are pretty much entirely unsubstantiated, yet common sense dictates that we can’t rule out the possibility – especially given Activision’s love of money.
As you probably know, the annual COD franchise has a cycle of developers working on their games at any given time, meaning that COD 2017 – which is reportedly heading back to the past – will be handled by developer Sledgehammer Games.
Naturally, a Modern Warfare 2 remake would be handled by a separate developer, much in the same way that Modern Warfare Remastered was given to developer Raven Software.
Given the fact that Infinite Warfare was received by fans about as well as a fart in a lift, there’s a good chance Activision have discovered that remastering an older, more popular game and including it as a premium bonus is a good way to boost the old sales.
One (albeit very shaky) slice of evidence first appeared back in April at the same time as the Modern Warfare remaster first leaked.
A ‘leaked’ Amazon listing for a Modern Warfare Remastered Trilogy did pop up on Twitter – but it was listed for 2016, which now seems unlikely.
However, there could be a kernel of truth in there, in that Activision does indeed intend to release a remastered trilogy eventually – it could just be that it won’t be until after they’ve included 2 and 3 as bonus content for COD 2017 and 2018.
I should also point out that Activision’s CEO Eric Hirschberg has discussed remakes previously – even before the Modern Warfare remaster. He said:
If done well, I think [remasters] can be great […] You talk about nostalgia, and people have such connection to the games they love from the last cycle. They want to see what it would look like if someone did it right for this cycle. It’s always the opportunity cost, meaning we need every body we can get to make the content we’re already committed to for our new games.
As I say, there’s very little to go on here other than a hefty dose of speculation – but it definitely wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.