Sci-fi Call of Duty rumors resurface

Source: A Gamasutra column by Chris Morris.

What we heard: Back in May, Activision registered a series of domain names that pointed to a sci-fi spin-off of the Call of Duty series. They included callofdutyfuturewarfare.com, advancedwarfare.com, spacewarfare2.com, and several other URLs that pointed toward a Battlefield 2142-style future-war spin-off of the series.

Two months prior, Activision announced that newly founded studio Sledgehammer Games would be "extending the series into the action-adventure genre." Though many assumed that the nascent studio was working on a third-person spin-off of the first-person shooter series, a job listing confirmed that the studio was indeed working on an FPS.

Now comes word that Sledgehammer's "action-adventure" Call of Duty game may catapult the series into the future. In a column today, Gamasutra's Chris Morris said that the sci-fi Call of Duty and Sledgehammer's installment in the series are one and the same.

"Industry sources say Sledgehammer's Call of Duty will be set in the future and feature, for lack of a better term, space marines, a very big step for a franchise that has historically based itself on realism," he said.

The official story: Activision reps had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Probably not bogus. Morris is a veteran game journalist with myriad contacts in the industry. Also, with Modern Warfare 2 abandoning realism in terms of storyline--with Russia mounting a full-on invasion of the US--the series' contemporary setting may be the next thing to fall by the wayside. And hey, Black Ops' SR-71 Blackbird level (pictured) is near-space, isn't it?