Those of you rocking Team CoD t-shirts rather than Team Battlefield gear, you'll be pleased to know that Activision is getting ready to release Call of Duty: Black Ops II. We know this not because of a rumor or whispers in the wind, but because an official pre-order page by Activision popped up in the U.K. advertising that the upcoming game will start shipping November 13, 2012.
Outside of death and taxes, both of which you can cheat, there are very few guarantees in life. One of them is that there will be another Call of Duty game. We can say this with absolute certainty because Activision Publishing would be foolish to kill its record breaking cash cow, especially after Modern Warfare 3 just became the only entertainment property to eclipse Avatar's 17-day $1 billion sales record.
Everyone seems to love The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and that's because there's very little not to like (unless you're just not into RPGs, in which case you should seek counseling immediately). Underscoring the widespread appeal of a game like Skyrim, the average gamer spent 23 hours hunting dragons and picking virtual pockets during Skyrim's first week of sales.
What happened to a delivery truck carrying a videogame shipment in France over the weekend was so brazen and wild that it could have qualified as a game level. In this case, the action was real as a truck traveling in Créteil, south Paris, was rammed by a car on Saturday as part of an organized accident that involved masked men, tear gas, and the theft of 6,000 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Logitech asks the question, "Are You Ready for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3?" If so, you're encouraged to check out themed versions of the peripheral maker's Logitech Gaming Keyboard G105 and Logitech Laser Mouse G9x. These logo'd accessories are the same as their regular counterparts, only pimped out with CoD: MW3 logos to let everyone know what your favorite FPS is.
Regardless of how you feel about Activision, or the Call of Duty franchise in general, it’s hard to deny these guys have found a winning formula that countless other publishers are struggling to emulate. And while Battlefield 3 team will probably be doing backflips all the way to the bank if they come even remotely close to matching Modern Warefare’s sales numbers, the companies new subscription based Elite service has created a moving target that EA would no doubt copy if they thought they could pull it off. During the Call of Duty XP keynote, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirsberg has finally detailed 
Call of Duty's a strange beast. It's all at once the gaming industry's calling card and whipping boy, with frequent angry words flying between sides like so many spammed grenades. If you keep your ear against the industry's pulse, though, Infinity Ward's infinitely sequelized cash cow that lays golden eggs is kind of a joke. It never changes. It's everything that's wrong with first-person shooters. Etc. Id Software mega-brain John Carmack, however, thinks it's high-time you come down from that high horse.
With a cash cow as fat and absurdly profitable as Call of Duty, you'd think Activision would be a bit more excited about its next first-person assault on your wallet. Despite that, for whatever reason, the publisher's remained oddly silent about the game, leaving players in agonized suspense about which dude will be shot in the face/exploded/shot in the face with an explosion next. You can breathe easy now, though, because The Internet managed to dig up dirt on, well, pretty much everything.
While giant corporations are prone to making some impressively boneheaded mistakes, they're not as dumb as you think they are. For instance, many “in-the-know” gamers see Activision as a sinking ship that simply hasn't quite found its iceberg, but – at the very least – the Godzilla-combined-with-King-Kong of videogame publishing has taken notice. And so, with Guitar Hero having played its swan song earlier this year, Activision's now forced to face the elephant in the room: Is Call of Duty next?
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