Gamertell

Coming out of left field, rumor has surfaced about a possible Call of Duty MMO. 

IGN reports that, while speaking to a group of investment analysts yesterday (February 4 2008) at the 008 Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick commented that his company might be considering turning its Call of Duty series into a massively multiplayer online game. Whether or not this statement has any truth to it, or is just Kotick thinking out loud, certainly shows that Activision, who last year joined in a partnership with Blizzard, sees that a MMO could be the next step for the Call of Duty franchise.

Last year, 2007, Call of Duty 4 was the highest selling game worldwide with more then 7 million copies sold, even with its late release. With Blizzard’s own track record with the world’s most popular MMO, World of Warcraft, the two gaming powerhouses could dominate the entire MMO market even more if the rumors of a Call of Duty MMO are true.

Bobby Kotick’s comments come after Activision had wrapped up research on the past five years of the MMO market in the United States. Most of the data didn’t show a positive side for the industry as most games failed outright, canceled or had lower then expected profit margins. Of course, World of Warcraft can certainly be partially blamed for taking the wind out of the MMO industry’s sales.

If a Call of Duty MMO is in the works, there is no word yet as to whether or not the game would be developed by either Infinity Ward, Treyarch or Pi Studios, each of who has been the developers of the previous games in the franchise. There are still some other questions that hasn’t been addressed yet, such as, would the game be set during the Second World War, which until recently, had been the focus of the series? Or will the MMO be set as Call of Duty 4 was, in the modern era? Only time is going to answer these questions. Until then, a Call of Duty MMO is certainly a nice idea.

Read [IGN]