Call of Duty 5 Confirmed

UK, December 3, 2007 - Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Call of Duty 5 and Guitar Hero 4 are both in development just hours after news of the company's merger hit the wire. And while the news is unlikely to come as a shock, if Activision Blizzard's recent boasts are anything to go by we could see both of the series reaching bigger and better heights.

Indeed, during a conference call held today Activision CEO Robert Kotick and Jean-Benard Levy spoke of the company's huge projected success and hinted that many of Activision's franchise could learn a lot from the success of World of Warcraft, which has 9.3 million users across the world. More specifically, Kotick expressed a distinct interest in the subscription model employed by the WoW developer, although quite how it will work with Activision's other franchises - including a new racing title from the freshly-acquired Bizarre Creations - remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, World of Warcraft won't be coming to console any time soon, with Levy categorically stating that a current-gen version of the game was most certainly not in the works.

In a press release posted along with the call, the combined company outlined some of the pipelined games that the Activision side of Activision Blizzard will be contributing to the mnerger and releasing in the near future. (Vivendi/Sierra/Blizzard of course have Starcraft II as well as several other titles in production.) Included in the list are:

* Guitar Hero IV
* Call of Duty 5
* James Bond (2008)
* Tony Hawk (new - 10th franchise entry)
* New Dreamworks Titles (various franchises)
* New Marvel Titles (various franchises)
* Bizarre Creations' New Entry in Racing (following September 2007 acquisition)



No further detailers were announced for any of these titles, and no platform plans were listed for the games listed. IGN will have more on all of these games hopefully early in 2008.

Following the announcement that Call of Duty 4 was the biggest selling game of 2007, Activision has confirmed that the next installment of their multi-million pound selling franchise will be ported to Wii, DS and Playstation 2, in addition to the expected Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions.

In a financial conference call yesterday, Activision confirmed that the title will be released before March 31st, 2009 and will not follow on from Call of Duty 4's modern warfare theme, but will instead have a World War II setting.

Activision has also confirmed their line up for the rest of the year and into early 2009, including a new Spider-Man title and a revamped Tony Hawk's game.

April - June 2008
# Kung Fu Panda (six platforms)
# 2 Guitar Hero Spinoffs

Fall 2008
# Call of Duty 5 (PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PC, PS2, Wii)
# Guitar Hero 4
# Next Tony Hawk
# Quantum of Solace (Bond 22)
# Madagascar: The Crate Escape
# Kung Fu Panda Followup
# Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
# Next Spider-Man

Early 2009
# Monsters Versus Aliens (Dreamworks Animation)