Infinity Ward teasing 2019 Call of Duty, and it's reportedly not Ghosts 2
It looks like Infinity Ward, the studio making this year's Call of Duty, has been low-key dropping hints about what the game might be.
Ashton Williams, senior communications manager at Infinity Ward, has been posting an unusual number of images featuring skulls/ghosts. Most of them black and white, and it's clear they're not just normal images on her personal account.
The teasers first started dropping in early December, but the Call of Duty community only recently became aware of them. The first thing that immediately jumps to mind is that this year's Call of Duty is a sequel to Ghosts, the studio's last modern-day shooter.
Ghosts was poorly-received, owed to key changes to multiplayer and a few technical problems the result of cross-generation development. However, according to Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who replied in a ResetEra thread discussing the news, the 2019 Call of Duty is not in fact Ghosts 2.
Assuming this isn't a new sub-series, the teasers are likely referencing the character Simon "Ghost" Riley, the SAS operative who will be familiar to fans of the Modern Warfare campaigns. Ghost meets his end in Modern Warfare 2, so it's possible the story of the new game will be a prequel.
Shortly after the reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 last year, reports of the next game in the series being a Modern Warfare sequel began appearing online.
At the time, it was also revealed that several key Respawn leads, many of whom are responsible for the success of the Modern Warfare series, have returned to their former home at Infinity Ward. Now would be a good time to revive the Modern Warfare series, as more and more games move away from the near-future as a setting. There's also the fact both of Infinity Ward's attempts to create new sub-series weren't successful.
Official teasers for a new Call of Duty typically kick off around March or April, which usually means a reveal event is scheduled for May or E3 in June. We'll be bringing you any news as we have it.